


The End of the World (Pacific Rim and the Zombie Apocalypse)

by koalathebear



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombies, F/M, Older Man/Younger Woman, Polyandry, Post-Apocalyptic, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-25
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 14:43:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/980122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Alternate Universe fic in which there are no Jaegers or Kaiju but the characters are confronting a Zombie Apocalypse…</p><p>"We always thought that humanity would come to an end as a result of a nuclear war between the super powers or because of an extinction event like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.  Instead, our annihilation came from deep beneath the sea.  When man’s greed caused us to drill too deeply beneath the ocean, we released ancient pathogens into the earth’s atmosphere that brought about untold suffering …"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Loss

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is a bizarre premise, but once it hopped into my head - it wouldn't go away ... Some of the text is from the Official Novelisation, lifted to help with the characterisation.
> 
> I have no idea where I am going with this - I'm just following the story that's unfolding in my head.

_We always thought that humanity would come to an end as a result of a nuclear war between the super powers or because of an extinction event like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. Instead, our annihilation came from deep beneath the sea. When man's greed caused us to drill too deeply beneath the ocean, we released ancient pathogens into the earth's atmosphere that brought about untold suffering …_

**ALASKA, 2020  
CONTAGION: YEAR 7**

Raleigh Becket heard the sound of the alarm through his sleep and started sitting up and swinging out of the bottom bunk in the Anchorage Shatterdome’s quarters before he was even fully awake. His swift response was attributable in part to muscle memory but it was mostly eagerness to start his next mission.

“Yancy, get up! We're moving out!”

Even though Raleigh had pulled his shirt on, glancing up he saw that Yancy hadn't even moved. Three years older than his brother, Yancy sometimes acted like he was a hundred years old. In many ways he was, having been parent and older brother for a number of years. Raleigh couldn't remember a time when his brother had been young and carefree. It seemed like Yancy had always had to be the adult - that look of worry and anxiousness in his eyes as he studied his impetuous younger brother.

“Let’s go, bro!” Raleigh kicked the edge of the bunk impatiently. While they shared some character traits, being alert post-sleep was not one of them. While Raleigh was able to leap to his feet, one-hundred-percent awake immediately, Yancy took ages to wake up. “We’re being deployed!”

"Great. Good morning,” Yancy grumbled.

"Come on, get moving," Raleigh told his brother impatiently.

Yancy muttered something incomprehensible. At least he was out of bed and moving. Raleigh was already at the door, alert and impatient to be off while Yancy finished stretching and pried his eyes open.

"Hurry up - I want at those Biters," Raleigh told his brother.

“Don’t get cocky,” Yancy reminded his brother. "Cocky gets you dead – or worse."

The two brothers had been orphaned during the early days of the Contagion. By an unspoken agreement, neither of them ever spoke of those days. The days of living in fear in an Enclave on Kodiak Island. The days when their mother was diagnosed with cancer. Despite her cancer she had continued to smoke until the day she died. "The Biters will get me or the cancer will," she had told them with an almost hysterical laugh. 

After her death, their father had lost the will to continue. One day, he had left the Enclave, walking outside into certain death and leaving his sons to their fate.

From that day, they'd only had each other and like many of the children orphaned by the Contagion, they had joined the Academy to help fight the onslaught of the Infected, buying precious time that was needed while the scientists and doctors of the world searched desperately for a cure – a cure that they still hadn't been able to find.

“Morning, boys,” Tendo Choi greeted them as they walked into the briefing room of the Shatterdome. 

Around the world, the Defence Corps had established fortresses known as Shatterdomes as their base of operations against the Infected. Heavily defended, they housed not only Defence Corps personnel, but civilians and precious medical and scientific staff who were humanity's last hope.

Choi, a Chinese-Chilean American had been working as a ferryman on the day that San Francisco was evacuated, managing to escape with his grandfather prior to San Francisco being decimated by a nuclear bomb. Unknown to him, his grandfather had been bitten during their escape so Choi had been forced to shoot him when he turned even though they had managed to reach safety. 

Three years later, he had joined the Academy as well to become a Tech and LOCCENT officer to oversee major deployment operations, discovering a previously unknown talent in logistics.

The Anchorage Shatterdome, being so far North was getting crowded – many civilians having heard the rumour that the Biters didn't like the cold. This wasn't entirely true, Zed would slow down in the cold but he never died and the Shatterdome was now reaching maximum capacity and they were going to have branch out and build more Enclaves to house the increasing numbers of refugees who came every day.

After governments and national borders crumbled in the wake of the Contagion, an improvised resistance of sorts had been established around the world – remnants of the military had regrouped. Any surviving emergency workers and volunteers had joined and there had been a recognition that over-reliance on heavy weaponry had failed them and that simply pouring man power at the Infected was not only resulting in a catastrophic loss of life – it also served to swell the ranks of the Undead.

The Rangers had been formed to serve as the vanguard of the conventional military, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. They worked in pairs and they had a variety of specific functions – scouting, clearing obstacles, carrying messages acting as harbingers to locate lodgings for the group for the following night. Their role was less reliant on guns and explosives than it was on speed and stealth. They were heavily trained and not surprisingly were regarded as the elite of the earth's remaining military forces.

To minimise casualties and losing precious soldiers to the Infected, the ideal number for a Ranger squad was simply a Ranger pair but occasionally as many as six were sent – never more though. Never alone. The unofficial motto of the Rangers was _Never Alone_ , a reference to the fact that a Ranger never went out into the field alone but it had come to signify something more. It meant that you didn't leave your partner out there alone – that if he or she was bitten, you did what needed to be done to end it.

“Tendo, my man!” Raleigh greeted him cheerfully.

“How’d your date with Alison go last night, Mr. Choi?” Yancy asked.

“Oh, she loved me,” Tendo replied. “Her boyfriend, not so much and I'm not prepared to be quite so post-modern quite so soon." The number of women surviving the Contagion was markedly less than the number of men, so polyamorous relationships had become quite commonplace.

“Provide the briefing Mr. Choi.” Stacker Pentecost’s stern voice interrupted the banter abruptly.

It was always business with Stacker Pentecost, Raleigh reflected. He didn't think that he'd ever seen the man smile let alone laugh.

Like the rest of the Rangers, Raleigh only knew fragments about his enigmatic commanding officer's past. Born in London, Pentecost had been educated in avionics, defence and warfare while in the Royal Air Force. His sister Luna had volunteered for service and been killed during the US military's bombardment of San Francisco when her plane crashed and she had been overrun by the Infected.

After Luna's death, Stacker had dedicated himself to a way to rid the Earth of the Contagion forever and together with his partner Tamsin Sevier, had been a key member of the Defence Corps and one of the first Rangers deployed into the field. His partner, Tamsin Sevier had been badly injured holding back the Infected during the evacuation of Tokyo in 2016 and had retired from active duty to become an instructor at the Academy. Although confined to a wheel-chair, she was known as one of the most demanding and competent instructors.

“Yes, sir,” Tendo responded obediently. "We've received what seems to be a distress signal from outside of Homer in the Kenai Peninsula. A chopper will take you to the area and you will investigate, count numbers and assess if the buildings can be converted into an Enclave. You will be briefed on Zed numbers and ground layout in the chopper." 

For survivors who were too far away to be brought within the safety of the walls of the Shatterdome, the Defence Corps would assist them to construct a safety Enclave which could be defended. They would be given supplies and taught to be self-sufficient as well as defend themselves. If sufficiently secure, other survivors would be brought there.

In the chopper, both Raleigh and Yancy looked at each other as they approached the drop zone. They would rappel out of the helicopter by rope in the middle of a field and away from buildings as noise attracted the Infected. From there, they would have to attempt to make it in the direction of the distress call as soon as possible.

The Rangers of the Defence Corps had made rappelling from a helicopter into an art form. It was used for missions where rugged terrain or the hurried pace of the mission would not permit a proper landing – pretty much all Ranger missions by necessity were at a hurried pace.

After studying the maps and estimated Zed numbers, the brothers pulled on their flight helmets and leather gloves with double-leather palms and fingers. Intense heat was created when sliding down the rope during the descent. 

"You ready?" Yancy asked of his younger brother who performed a final check of the hook-up, rappel seat, rappel ring and other equipment. Raleigh pulled on the rope to double-check the anchor point connection and nodded in confirmation.

The signal was given and the brothers dropped their deployment bags out and away from the chopper, glancing out to ensure that the ropes were touching the ground and free of any tangles or knots. Their deployment bags contained all the gear that they would need on the ground and also helped to hold the rope steady. As Rangers needed to move swiftly and quietly, though, the contents of their deployment bags were kept to a bare minimum and Rangers were expected to improvise while in the field.

Raleigh swung his legs outside of the chopper, getting into a sitting position and braced himself for the jump. 

"Go!" Yancy called and Raleigh flexed his knees and pushed away from the skid gear, allowing the rope to pass through his brake hand and his guide hand. 

At the Academy, they were taught that the descent should be roughly 8 feet per second, with no jerky stops. These days, the motion was second nature and Raleigh no longer counted the seconds, starting the braking process slowly when he was about halfway to the ground. 

He released tension on the rope and moved his brake hand out at a 45-degree angle to regulate his rate of descent. After reaching the ground, he cleared the rappel rope through the rappel ring until it was free. 

From above, once the chopper had confirmed that both brothers were are off rappel, the rope was dropped away from the helicopter and the brothers were alone in enemy territory again.

Raleigh surveyed the trees along the edge of the perimeter and nodded at his brother. 

"Let's head for the tree-line. Always feel like a sitting duck out in the open."

"No argument here, squirt," his brother agreed.

*

The brothers hiked and jogged in silence. Despite being dead, the Infected were attracted by noise and Rangers were trained to move with minimal sound. It caused an odd dynamic. The brothers spent so much time together and yet spoke so little, communicating everything by way of a series of hand signals and glances.

The Infected they encountered along the way they dispatched with cold, steady efficiency and continued in search of the source of the distress signal. They arrived at what had been one of the farming areas of Alaska and both glanced at one another and nodded.

"Thank god you're here," a man called down from window of the tall farm house that was surrounded by a high fence. There were no Zeds in sight but the man's panicked visage indicated that they must be around. 

"We're Rangers from the Defence Corps, sir," Yancy told him.

The heavy gate swung open and the Becket brothers walked through, dressed in their dark blue Ranger uniforms. Unlike the rest of the Defence Corps, they didn't wear heavy body armour – it slowed them down. Defence Corps lore said you had to be three quarters mad to want to be a Ranger. Rangers knew different, they knew that you had to be completely mad.

"We've been hiding out here for years, but we've had increasing attacks lately, lost a lot of people and we're running low on food and med," he told them.'

"Your fences aren't secure, sir," Yancy commented with disapproval, staring at the gaps in the fence that were guarded by people carrying guns or machetes.

"We repair them as quickly as we can but the Zeds are swarming and attack us whenever we try to forage for wood and more food." Like the others in the compound, the man's face was gaunt and showed the effects of exhaustion and malnutrition. His iron grey hair was unbrushed and unkempt.

"How many of you are there?" Raleigh asked, glancing around the large farm complex. It was an industrial farm, probably owned by a corporate before the Contagion struck so it was much larger than a private farm.

"We used to have a hundred. Down to forty five," the man told them. "I'm Walt – used to be the manager of this place back in the day."

"Raleigh Becket. This is my brother Yancy."

"We had cows and crop here, but we had a locust plague a year back which took out most of our crop and we haven't been able to feed the cows or our people properly since then. Folks are making sure that the kids eat first but it leaves the rest of us weak and hungry."

Yancy frowned, looking at the assembled people, assessing their potential mobility and usefulness. 

"We'll be able to ship some of the sickest out to the Anchorage Shatterdome but the plan is to leave some of your people here – bolster your perimeter, ship in some supplies and try to build this place up again so that it can be an Enclave."

"That works for me," Walt said gratefully. "I'll stay but I know there's many who'd prefer to be somewhere safer."

"There's no where that's safe anymore, sir," Yancy told him bluntly. 

He looked at his brother. "Give LOCCENT an update and scout out a place where the choppers can land. I'll start looking at who should stay and go."

"Copy that," Raleigh nodded.

*

"They're reporting that the Zeds are getting bolder and faster," Raleigh reported, looking back at the pale faces that gathered in the yard and stared at him curiously. They pointed and whispered amongst themselves, the children were shy and stared at his uniform with pointed fascination.

That's consistent with what we've heard in reports from round the world," Choi agreed gloomily.

"We'll have choppers and supplies out there in an hour," Pentecost told him gravely. "Remember, only the weakest. The stronger ones have to stay there and help us build the place up."

"Yes sir," Raleigh replied.

There was a scream and Raleigh pivoted sharply and began running in the direction of the sound.

He knew that panicked sound all too well … The sound of sheer terror and fear. He knew the chaos that the sound of panic could create – making humans behave irrationally and run like cattle. He rounded the corner, he saw a group of people running from a gap in the fence.

"My daughter! She slipped through my arms before I could hold her!" a grief-stricken man shouted. "Saw her mother through the gap in the fence and her voice attracted the others!"

"Jesus Christ, how many Biters got through?" Raleigh called out to his brother.

"At least six," Yancy called out. "Everybody – get into the barn and out of our way unless you have a weapon!"

The stench of the dead was all around them and Raleigh's nostrils twitched, his senses alert as he scanned the fence-line. 

"Get him out of here," Raleigh told Walt grimly, indicating the man who was weeping for the loss of his daughter. "She's already gone." 

It wasn't the first time that the dead had lured their loved ones into damnation. In the early days of the Contagion, the Infected had killed or turned loved ones who had nursed them, approached them thinking that they were still family members. 

As time passed, even with the full consciousness of the deadliness of the Infected, there was something very haunting about looking into the face of a Zed whom one had known in life. There was no science to back it up, but it appeared that the Infected still had residual memory, haunting the places they had been in life and following those they had loved in life. Many a person had been lured from safety into the ravenous arms of a former loved one.

"Raleigh - fall back!" Yancy shouted as he skidded to a stop, staring around in horror at the dozens of dead who had pushed at the gap in the fence, widening the hole to rush through and swarm around him.

“No,” Raleigh shouted hoarsely, staring at his brother as he slashed at the Infected who surrounded him. His uniform was bright with blood, he grunted in pain as he shook off an Infected who had bitten him on the arm.

"It's too late for me. Get the hell out of here, Raleigh!" Yancy ordered. 

"No fucking way," Raleigh roared, disobeying him and running towards his brother.

"You stubborn little shit," Yancy muttered and pulled a handheld explosive device out of his pocket.

"No, Yancy, no!" Raleigh screamed, tears in his eyes as he stared into Yancy's grim face. 

Yancy detonated the device, obliterating himself and the majority of Biters around him even as it flung Raleigh backwards through the air and a short distance away where he lay in the grass, dazed and bleeding.

Yancy was snatched from life and Raleigh was completely alone in the world.

_Yancy, no, you can't leave me …_

*

Raleigh had never been cold like this. Everything hurt.

Yancy was gone. His heart pounded in his chest. His throat was tight and the tears were in his eyes, stinging like acid.

Raleigh stared up into the sky. He could hear the sound of choppers, of voices saying: "Get him to a stretcher. Has he been bitten?"

Blood was trickling down his face. He could feel the stickiness of the bloody on the sleeve of his uniform, his legs.

“Yancy?” he said. His uniform was shredded. He shivered, the cold biting into him. 

He blacked out again.


	2. A New Partner

_In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short._  
— Thomas Hobbes: "Chapter XIII.: Of the Natural Condition of Mankind As Concerning Their Felicity, and Misery.", Leviathan.

**HONG KONG, CHINA, 2025  
CONTAGION: YEAR 12 **

The mission was simple but almost impossible. The Hong Kong Shatterdome with its research facilities and databases on the Contagion had fallen to the Infected some weeks earlier. Hundreds had died but some survivors had fled, carrying with them a story of hope.

The last of the Shatterdomes in the world to fall to the Infected it was rumoured to have been closest to sequencing the infection that had led to the Contagion.

The only possibility of a cure lay within the walls of the Shatterdome and its science labs. Marshall Pentecost and his loyal volunteers were camped out at a nearby dockyard by the harbour planning the assault.

Sometimes, it was impossible to believe that humanity had managed to survive as long as it had. Twelve long years since the pathogens had been released from the deep sea bed, twelve long years since the world's largest cities had devoured themselves and the people had scattered. 

The world's nations had long disappeared. All over the Earth, the remnants of humanity clustered in small carefully guarded Enclaves but numbers were dwindling and the Infected showed no signs of slowing down or disappearing. Whatever noxious spirit it was that reanimated them after death, stayed the process of decomposition and they continued to hunger for human flesh. The Infected knew no fatigue, no fear and they were relentless. Humankind was on the brink of extinction.

The Defence Corps as an international force had disintegrated long ago as telecommunications had failed and Shatterdome after Shatterdome had fallen. Technology had slid backwards as the world descended into an almost primitive existence. Thomas Hobbes might have described it as the state of nature – a world without a social contract. " _…no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short_ ". Hobbes could never have imagined the existence of a horror such as the Infected, however. His treatise could not have imagined the existence of monsters – only human monsters, perhaps. 

There were indeed human monsters in existence. Thieves, murderers and pillagers who took advantage of their superior strength and dominance to prey upon the weak. The only thing more terrifying than a Biter was the baseness of man against man.

With humanity struggling to survive, the earth was reclaiming civilisation - cities and buildings being reswallowed by the forest. Human structures were devoured by termites, ants, cockroaches, hornets and small animals. The Shatterdomes were amongst the last man-made structures in the world to withstand nature's onslaught relatively unscathed. Elsewhere, pavements and roads were cracking and becoming overrun with plants and weeds, buildings were collapsing as the Undead roamed the earth unchecked while humans hid from sight.

Pentecost stared over at the young woman sitting by the fire, sharpening her knives, her black hair falling over her pale and serious face. His adopted daughter Mako Mori. Rescued by Pentecost in Tokyo from the Infected when she was only 11 years old, Mako's purpose in life had been to become a Ranger like Pentecost and find a way to seize the Earth back from the deadly Infected that now held it in its grip. 

Even now, she demanded to be part of the mission to retake the Shatterdome. Every day was a battle between father and daughter. He cursed her stubbornness as much as he loved her for it.

From around the world, the remnants of the Defence Corps and other volunteers had gathered in Hong Kong to follow Marshall Stacker Pentecost in what could only be described as a suicide mission - a last ditch effort to save the world. He had even heard rumours that even Raleigh Becket himself had come to Hong Kong, although the man was yet to make himself known to Pentecost.

He still remembered when he had lost two of his best Rangers. Yancy Becket had been killed by the Infected and Raleigh Becket had left the Rangers, suffering from clear post-traumatic stress, compounded by his mercurial temperament and survivor’s guilt. It had been difficult to keep tabs on the young man in the chaotic years that followed but he knew that Becket had been in an Enclave on the mainland, helping to keep its occupants safe. While survivors could be found holed up all over the globe in various safe houses, bases and underground locations, it was the Enclaves that offered the only relative security for survivors.

"What's the plan, Stacker?" he heard a voice demand in the familiar drawl of an Australian. Glancing to his left, he saw that his old friend and colleague Herc Hansen approaching him. Tall, with closely cropped hair which was more red than brown in the sun, Herc Hansen was one of the most experienced and fearless Rangers Pentecost had ever known.

Together with his son Chuck, Herc had brought more survivors back to safety, returned from more missions than any other Ranger in the Defence Corps. Despite all of this, he remained plain-spoken and level-headed - the quintessential Aussie. His son was more of a hot-head. Equally brave and skilled, he was more likely to have conflict with others or do impulsive things in the field. Tension between father and son had been more acute of late but Pentecost was too busy dealing with his own problems with Mako to try and offer his old friend advice about Chuck.

"We need to study the plans of the Shatterdome … then a team will need to scout ahead before the mission. We can't go in blind … there could be thousands of Biters in there."

"I’m in," Herc volunteered immediately. One of the first generation of Rangers, there was no one else who was more intrepid or resourceful. Pentecost was glad to have him at his side.

Pentecost nodded and walked away to one of the freight containers that was serving as a makeshift armoury.

Glancing around, Herc saw Mako sitting by the fire staring ahead at something that wasn't there.

"You know you need to blink every now and then if you don't want your eyes to dry up," he told her coolly, walking up to her and dropping onto the ground beside her. He had watched her grow up over the years, seen her grow from a cute little girl with missing teeth to an awkward, frustrated teenager to the calm, purposeful young woman she was today. If no one had been around, he would have reached out and drawn her into his arms. As it was, he sat beside her and resisted the urge to touch her.

She said nothing, merely continued to stare stonily into the fire.

"You're all the Marshall has left, love. There's no way he's going to allow you to be part of the mission."

She glanced over at him. "Chuck will be part of it," she said with a hint of accusation in her voice.

"No one tells Chuck what to do," Herc said with a rueful grin. "You should know that. Only his mother could ever control him …" Herc's voice faded away and his gaze became distant. Mako reached out and rested her hand on his comfortingly. Comfort became something else and his eyes darkened for a moment as she reached up to touch his cheek lightly. She always found it harder to be discreet than he did.

He turned his head slightly, allowing his lips to brush the slightest hint of a kiss into the palm of her hand before he got back to his feet and stared down at her, a look of longing in his eyes.

"You can't blame your old man for wanting to protect what he loves," he told her. 

As he strode away, her dark eyes followed him thoughtfully, considering his words.

*

Mako walked into the harbour side shantytown and looked around warily. More than a decade ago, it had been a floating village of the Hakka. The Hakka that survived had fled long ago, now all that remained were the riff raff and scum that drifted into the port city of Hong Kong to trade on the black market, to gamble, to buy and sell or to seek oblivion in the drugs and alcohol that were for sale in town.

 _Sensei_ would have had an apoplectic fit had he known where she was going, but he was holed up in strategy meetings all day and probably wouldn't even notice that she had crept out of the dockyard without anyone being aware of her movements.

Like Pentecost, she had heard the stories that Raleigh Becket was in Hong Kong. After some pointed questions, she even had a pretty good idea of where she might find him.

She approached a makeshift hall that had been constructed from whatever had been salvaged from the ruins of the town. Inside, there were shouts and cheers of exultation and disappointment. 

Mako walked into the hall and stared across the room. In the ring, a tall, well-built man with dark blond hair was bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting. He was up, ready, a light sheen of sweat on his skin and his face relaxed and almost mocking. She recognised Raleigh Becket from old photographs. What was new were the scars. The healed over scar tissue on his back, chest and arms was visible through the white singlet he wore.

Mako studied him narrowly, fascinated. He looked younger than she expected. There was something boyish about the handsomeness of his face – the straightness of his nose, the clean line of his jaw. He was lean and muscled, not beefy or bulky – he had the body of a finely honed athlete. Clearly he had stayed in shape despite having left the Defence Corps.

Someone tossed him a hanbō which he balanced in his hand easily. He stepped out onto the mat to meet his first challenger, a tall lanky man with a pock-marked face and a crooked smile.

The two men nodded to each other and assumed their stances.

The pocked man came right at Raleigh with a series of aggressive strokes: slash, butt, slash. No finesse, no attempt to feint or draw Raleigh out. 

Raleigh pivoted and tapped the pocked man on the back of the knee, just as he was putting his weight down to reset and defend. He went down, springing back up again. Raleigh squared up, the pocked man came at him again, and Raleigh set him down again, this time with a little hook sweep inside the ankle. He hadn’t even tried to hit his opponent yet.

“Two to zero,” the umpire called out.

The pocked man came at Raleigh a little slower now, probing, trying to get a sense of how he could provoke Raleigh into a rash attack. He was learning already. Raleigh took him out before he had the chance to study too much of his fighting techniques. He stepped hard ahead and to his right, but as the pocked man shifted his weight to anticipate a strike from that direction, Raleigh had already swapped the hanbō to his left and slipped it under the pocked man’s guard to poke him in the ribs.

Three.

Four was almost identical to two given that Raleigh’s opponent was getting angry.

The fifth point was over before it started. The pocked man took a step and Raleigh saw his lunge coming a mile away. All he had to do was catch the outside of the lead foot and give it a little tug.

The pocked man for the fifth and final time, heavy and inelegant.

“Five point wins to zero."

Raleigh saw a slight movement from the doorway and was surprised to see a young Asian woman standing on her own by the entrance. Things were rough in the shantytown and it was a brave or a foolhardy woman who came here alone. She stood confidently though, calm and assured. 

Her hair fell around her face, and Raleigh noted that the glossy black mane was dyed a deep blue where it framed her jawline. 

He shook a little tightness out of one shoulder and waited for his next challenger, a large brawny man. Bets were placed and he grinned confidently.

Raleigh beat the new challenger easily - four points to one.

The third challenger, a bald man with a perpetual grin made Raleigh work a little harder, tapping him twice with the hanbō because Raleigh was getting a little bored. None of the three had posed the least challenge. The money would be easy today.

“Three points to two,” the umpire called out.

Raleigh started to put his hanbō down and collect his winnings but at that moment, a voice called out.

"Wait." He looked up and the young woman was stepping into the ring. She placed a bet with the man who was sitting ringside, putting her money on herself to win.

"Confident," he remarked with interest. "Think you can do better than the others, do you?" he asked her.

"Yes," she told him simply.

"What's your name?" he asked her curious.

"That’s not important, Mr Becket," she told him and Raleigh raised an eyebrow at her use of his name.

He stepped to his side of the ring. Mako squared up to him.

They closed and Mako threw a first strike, a formal move to start the fight. Raleigh blocked it and came back overhand, loose and easy, assuming that they were still in the early formalities. Unexpectedly, Mako caught the end of his hanbō and cracked Raleigh hard in the ribs under his stick arm.

She flipped the end of his hanbō back at him. 

“One-zero,” Mako told him calmly.

While she was still gloating a little, Raleigh flicked a sideways swing over her dropped guard and popped her on the left shoulder before she could block. Just like that, her gloating became a somewhat venomous glare.

“One-one,” Raleigh said. It was hard to resist the urge to wink at her infuriated face.

Her fighting style was disconcertingly familiar. He didn't have time to fully assess her fighting technique as he suddenly noted an opening. He twirled his hanbō, reversed his grip, and tapped her on the left shoulder.

“Two-one,” he said, and this time he did wink. “Concentrate, now,” he teased her.

In return for his teasing, he received a glare of pure fury. Not surprising, she retaliated immediately with a straight thrust into his gut. Raleigh gasped violently and doubled over, but Mako wasn’t done. She kicked his legs out from under him and as he went down, she fell with him into a crouch, winding up for a blow to the face that would have broken his nose. At the last moment, she held back... and gave Raleigh a light, teasing slap on the cheek with her hanbō.

Hovering over Raleigh, her face close to his, Mako gave him a smile of satisfaction that in another person would have been accompanied by a snarl.

“Two-two,” she said.

The next point would decide the outcome of the fight. Mako got up and Raleigh leapt to his feet lightly, fully alert.

After that, both of them could really start to feel something happen between them. He anticipated every single one of Mako's strikes but they still came swiftly enough that he could barely parry them. It went both ways and he could see her anticipating his strikes even as she blocked him just in time.

They were surprisingly evenly matched. Both moved effortlessly like athletes, strong and confident. Although he outweighed her by perhaps eighty pounds and the advantage in terms of reach and strength, she was so nimble and agile that he could hardly touch her. As they fought, they moved over almost every inch of the ring, hanbōs snapping into each other and tearing through the spaces vacated by the other's ankle or shoulder an instant before. Every fall became a rolling spring into a defensive posture, every parry became a strike, every advance met its perfect countering retreat.

One heard of a fight being like a dance and this was the first time either had experienced a match that seemed like it had been choreographed. Their breathing was almost simultaneous, their moves almost synchronised as their steps and postures mirrored one another subconsciously. As they struck, parried and dodged both had the disconcerting feeling of fighting oneself. Mind-reading wasn't usually possible but as they fought, it was as though they were in each other's head.

She flipped him to the ground and stood over him, staring down at him, her face flushed and triumphant.

"Seriously – who are you?" he demanded. 

Mako said nothing but walked to the edge of the ring to retrieve her considerable winnings, stuffing them into the pocket of her dark blue cargo pants.

Without looking over her shoulder, she walked out of the hall and into the darkness of the evening.

The smell of the shanty town was disgusting and Mako's nose wrinkled as she walked down the narrow dirt road. It smelled like an open sewer. The occupants of the town lived in a combination of tents and makeshift huts. The local Triad bosses kept the town notionally safe with hired muscle – funded in large part by extortion rackets. 

Only notionally safe though - the cheaper accommodation on the edge of town was particularly dangerous and it was not unusual for screams to be heard in the night and unfortunate residents to be devoured. During times like that the hired muscle would visit and dispose of the deceased or reanimated occupant of the room.

As she walked down a dark laneway, she realised she was being followed, stopped and turned to confront the group of men who were trailing a short distance behind her. Dirty, gap-toothed and leering they were as unattractive as the festering Biters she fought on a regular basis.

"Pretty little girl coming in here on her own can only be wanting one thing," the tallest of the men announced, his pale eyes raking over her slim body lustfully. She counted four. They all had knives, one had an axe and they were all walking towards her menacingly. 

The first one reached for her, smug and secure in his ability to overpower her but the smile vanished from his face as she punched him hard, smashing his nose in and sending him flying.

As he lay on the ground screaming and bleeding, his companions turned and rushed at her in rage, knives pulled out and the axe swishing through the air. She kicked one of them back but not before another had seized her arm and was holding a knife to her throat.

"We are going to hurt you so bad, bitch," he hissed at her, his foul breath heavy and warm against her face.

As one of them twisted her arm behind her and the other continued to hold the knife to her throat, he scowled "Why aren't you more afraid?" he demanded angrily, glaring at her.

"Probably because she's just playing with you," Raleigh Becket's voice said calmly from behind them.

They spun around and stared at the former Ranger who stood in the alleyway with them, his blond hair tousled and his blue eyes steady.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" one of the thugs demanded.

"Is this for my benefit, miss?" Raleigh asked Mako in faint amusement and she shrugged, stepping to the side and flipping the man holding her arm behind her back to the ground, dislocating his shoulders swiftly as she kicked the knife from his hand.

With almost laughable ease, they dispatched the rest of the men until they were glancing around at three unconscious men and one man who was still snivelling while holding his bleeding nose.

"Did you come here to pick a fight?" he asked her curiously.

"Only with you," she said simply and continued walking. He picked up his back pack and slung it back onto his back again as he fell into step beside her.

"You have my attention. When are you going to tell me who you are?" he asked her, staring down at her expressionless face with great curiosity in his eyes.

Mako said nothing.

It was hard to believe that they were walking in the shadow of Hong Kong that had once had a population of seven million people and been one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Once known for its expansive skyline, the tall buildings now resembled huge, stark gravestones jugging up against the sky. This ghost town had once been one of the world's leading international financial centres, known for its modern architecture and being one of the world's most vertical cities.

The large population coupled with the close living conditions had meant that when the Contagion struck Hong Kong, the results had been catastrophic. Many of the Infected had remained in the area, milling around the offices where they had worked, the apartments in which they had lived and the vast shopping districts where they had shopped. 

Along the walk, they encountered half a dozen Biters, stragglers who had been relocated from the outskirts of the town now wandered at the perimeter. The first had been tall and strong in life. His throat had been torn out and the blood was dry and black. His white eyes stared at her sightlessly as his hands reached out for her, his black teeth snapping spasmodically as he moved with surprising speed towards her.

Raleigh stabbed it in the brain swiftly before she could respond and she turned and stared at him, shaking her head. She quickly dispatched two others as he dealt with the final three. They moved swiftly, automatically fighting back to back so that they had full coverage and visibility of the area around them.

Each kept an eye on the other and each intervened at the slightest hint of the other needing assistance, anticipating as if they had always fought together.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked eventually as they walked along an overgrown footpath that had once been a well-trodden thoroughfare on the outskirts of the city. With the sewers clogged, water had sluiced away soil under the pavement causing the streets to crater. To their left, the buildings were starting to sag and buckle, grass growing on walls and around windows, a mere shadow of their former modernity.

"You'll see, Mr Becket," she told him calmly. She leapt across a large split in the pathway. As concrete pavements had separated, weeds had blown in and worked their way down the new cracks, which widened further. With no humans around, the weeds grew thick and profuse, rooting in tiny chinks and heaving up the sidewalks. Both had to walk carefully to avoid tripping. Sometimes the long grass also held dormant Infected, lying there in wait for food. 

As they arrived at the edge of the shipyard, he watched with raised eyebrow as she led him down a convoluted route to the high wall, avoiding trip wires and alert mechanisms. She scrambled nimbly up an old abandoned crane and used it to leap over the high fence.

"Are you coming or not, Mr. Becket?" she called softly and with a shrug, Raleigh followed suit, landing lightly on his feet beside her.

As they walked into the shipping office that served as the Marshall's office, Pentecost came striding out, his expression thunderous. 

"Where in God's name have you been, Mako? I almost had a search party out looking for you."

"I am sorry, Marshall. I thought that you would be in the meeting for longer," she said with genuine apology in her voice.

Pentecost's eyes snapped with anger and then his eyes widened as he stared at the dishevelled young man standing beside her.

“Mr. Becket,” Pentecost said, as if they’d planned the meeting an hour before.

Raleigh nodded. “Marshall. Looking sharp,” he remarked, commenting on the Marshall's dark blue uniform. It was so like him to still be wearing a formal uniform while the rest of them were scrounging for whatever clothing they could find.

Pentecost shook Raleigh’s hand. “It’s been a very long time."

"Five years, four months,” Raleigh said. He didn’t add the days and hours, though he could have.

Pentecost frowned.

“Seems like it's been longer.”

“No, sir,” Raleigh replied. “It’s been five years, four months.”

Pentecost nodded, his mouth tightening for a moment.

Clearly Pentecost had lost people, too from the expression in his eyes. Everyone had lost someone during the Contagion. Grief and fear had become a part of everyone's life.

"That's where you went, Miss Mori?" Pentecost asked Mako. "You went to find Raleigh Becket?"

"I went to find my partner for the mission," Mako told the Marshall calmly.

Raleigh gave a low whistle of amusement and shoving his hands in his pockets, looked over at Mako. 

"So back there - you were auditioning for me?"

"Was I acceptable?" she asked him and there was a hint of vulnerability in her voice.

"You are pretty awesome," Raleigh agreed. "I'm not looking for a partner though," he told her, a hint of apology in his voice. Since Yancy's death, he preferred to work alone. He didn't want to be responsible for another human again. He had lost too much and the pain was always there.

"You don't have to make up your mind right away," Mako told him calmly. "But we fight well together."

"We do," he agreed, his gaze holding hers. "But I'm not a Ranger anymore."

"You will always be a Ranger," she told him.

"Tell me more about the mission," Raleigh told Pentecost, his gaze not leaving Mako's face.

"It's simple. The Shatterdome is swarming with Infected. We need to send in a team to help us clear a path, activate the surveillance and be our eyes … activate the defence mechanisms … kill the Infected and take it back."

"Very simple. Kamikaze mission, I assume?" he questioned, his gaze dropping to Mako's full, unpainted mouth before travelling back up to her huge, dark eyes again.

"Not that bleak. Have you ever heard of the term "forlorn hope"?" Pentecost asked him.

"Comes from the Dutch _verloren hoop_ meaning "lost hope" and adapted as "lost troop"," a voice spoke from behind Raleigh and he turned around to see an older man approach him who looked very familiar.

"Herc Hansen," he said holding out his hand and shaking Raleigh's hand. 

"We've met before," Raleigh said, recognition dawning. "The scouting mission in Manila."

"That's right," Herc agreed. "Been a long time. I was sorry to hear about your brother."

"Than you, sir. Tell me more about this … forlorn hope …"

"A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high," Pentecost told him calmly.

"I see," Raleigh said slowly.

Pentecost nodded. "In the old days, it meant the first wave of soldiers attacking a breach in defences during a siege. It was likely that most members of the forlorn hope would be killed or wounded. The intention was that some would survive long enough to seize a foothold that could be reinforced, or at least that a second wave with better prospects could be sent in while the defenders were reloading or engaged in mopping up the remnants of the first wave."

"Take it you're not having people fall over themselves to volunteer, sir," Raleigh remarked.

"You'd be surprised," Herc said with a grin. "Remember – it's likely to be killed, not definite. Besides, forlorn hope might as well be the Ranger's motto."

"True," Raleigh conceded. He turned back to Mako.

"And you want to be part of this?" he questioned her and she nodded grimly.

"We'll talk about this later, Miss Mori," Pentecost told her coolly. "For now, please arrange for Mr Becket to have somewhere to sleep and then show him around."

"Yes, Marshall," Mako said politely, bowing slightly. "Please follow me, Mr Becket," Mako Mori invited Raleigh and he followed her into the shipyard, conscious of having the strangest feeling that he was returning home.


	3. Introductions

Raleigh followed Mako through the dockyard. It was a good temporary base of operations. Flanked on three sides by water, they had sailboats and rafts for evacuation if needed and there was only access by land on one side and a No Man's land of sorts had been created. It wouldn't stop the Infected, but it would slow them down enough for the volunteers to thin the herd and to escape. 

The Infected couldn't swim and although they could walk along the bottom of the harbour – the shipyard extended far enough over the water's edge that no Infected was going to be walking up that way.

It was how the majority of them had arrived in Hong Kong, by sail boat. Some like him - the foolhardy - had risked an overland journey but others had gone by boat. The world's gas and fuel supplies even boosted with what stabilisers could be scavenged had expired a very long time ago. These days, everyone had to rely on more basic means of transportation to get around. At best, they might be able to use solar powered vehicles, at worst, they were down to bicycles, boats and walking.

Nonetheless, sound and lights were kept to a minimum and all personnel remained inside converted shipping containers or the abandoned vessels where possible in order to avoid drawing the unwanted attention of the Dead.

"This one can be yours," she told him as they approached a large shipping container that was divided in half. "You can get a sleeping bag and fold-out bed from supplies – I'll show you where that is."

He put his bag down in his 'room'. He had nothing of value to steal. 

"I'm here," she told him, indicating the other end of the container.

"We're neighbours?" he asked her in amusement and she nodded. 

They continued walking. "The Wei Triplets," Mako told him, indicating three Chinese youths sitting at the edge of the dock playing cards. "They were Rangers from Hong Kong and stayed behind to defend Hong Kong Port before it finally fell." 

It had been a huge sacrifice. The fall of Hong Kong had been a terrifying time – millions of people in blind panic as the Contagion had spread like wildfire.

Three heads lifted and the Wei Triplets studied Raleigh with recognition in their dark eyes.

" _Huan ying_ (Welcome)," one of them said politely before the three of them returned to study the cards that they held in their hands.

"During the fall of Hong Kong, they got past thousands of Infected to help rescue countless people – guiding them to safety," she informed him.

“Over there are Aleksis and Sasha Kaidanovsky, husband and wife team – Rangers from Russia who came here to help when they heard about the Marshall's plan," Mako told him. 

A giant of a man was attempting to repair what looked like an electronic device while a blonde woman sat beside him. She looked almost like a doll beside him. It was hard to tell if she was unusually small or just ordinary-sized and looked tiny compared to the man.

“I’ve heard of them. Perimeter patrol on the Siberian Wall,” Raleigh said. 

“That’s right. The Russians were formidable … kept the Infected at bay for longer than anyone thought possible – the Kaidanovskys were instrumental in that. The wall went unbreached for almost six years before it fell.” 

Now, like the rest of the world, the Russians had scattered and living a hand to mouth existence, scavenging and making do with what remained.

Raleigh stared at the couple. As everyone else did, both wore whatever they felt like. Post-Contagion, you wore whatever you could find or make. Sasha wore faded jeans and a tight t-shirt with a faded logo from some band that was popular pre-Contagion. Her pale blonde hair was cropped short. Her face was strong and striking rather than pretty and she stared at him with heavy-lidded blue eyes that assessed shrewdly. Her gaze moved from Mako's face to his speculatively.

Aleksis wore a heavy leather jacket and a heavy beard covered his face. It was at that point that Mako realised why Raleigh looked so boyish. He had elected to remain clean-shaven. Most men these days had opted against shaving on a daily basis. While it was possible to find razor blades and shavers – scavenging for such items involved a high degree of risk. Beards were much more the norm. Mako assumed that like Pentecost, Raleigh must be shaving using the blade of his knife. An interesting choice given the discomfort involved. 

Shaving lotion was yet another luxury that was a thing of the past although most survivors had come up with natural alternatives to soap, shampoo and toothpaste that involved using plants and oils that had been gathered from the plentiful forests that were reclaiming the planet. 

Survivors had become quite creative, making a toothpaste from baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, coconut and peppermint. It wasn't simply for breath freshness reasons – keeping tooth decay at bay was even more critical now in a time where dental surgery was no longer possible and something as simple as an infection or an abscess could lead to death.

By contrast, shaving had become something of a rarity so a full beard was a more common sight than a clean-shaven male. 

Sasha and Aleksis nodded in acknowledgement as he passed. Word travelled fast in the camp.

"Here is Sergeant Hansen again – he is part of the Ranger team from Australia," Mako told him. Something in her voice made Raleigh glance at her sharply but her face was expressionless. "He works with his son, Chuck."

Herc and Chuck Hansen stood together in the doorway of a rusty old storage container. Chuck was a young man, as tall as Raleigh, his hair a dark red and his face sullen and unwelcoming. He was tossing a ball for a dog of uncertain breed origins with heavy jowls, who happily left strings of drool on it at every exchange back to his master. He stared at Raleigh coolly, no welcome or warmth in his gaze. A contrast to his father who remained polite and friendly.

“Herc and Chuck will be running point on the mission. The dog is Max.”

It had been a long time since humanity had been on the offensive, Raleigh reflected. "Tell me more about this mission." 

"The Hansens will bring an explosive device on the mission, lead the Infected to an area away from the Shatterdome and detonate it. Other volunteers will assist with containment. The Hansens will then be assisted back to safety by another Ranger team while another two teams try to seize control of Shatterdome operations again." Raleigh turned to stare at Pentecost who had appeared as if out of nowhere.

"Word on the street is that the Shatterdome is a mess – absolutely crawling with Biters."

"Yes, but we need it back," Pentecost told him in a determined and matter-of-fact voice. "According to our intelligence, it was the only one that had made any headway in breaking down the composition of the Contagion."

"A cure?"

"No one knows. We won't know until we get in there."

"It's a big endeavour for a maybe," Raleigh commented.

"It's the only scrap of hope we've had in a long time," Pentecost told him grimly and Raleigh nodded in agreement.

"Where are you getting your explosives and weaponry from?" Raleigh asked.

“Did you see the Russians?” Pentecost asked. “They can get just about anything. Besides, this is still Hong Kong – you can get a lot of things on the black market."

Chuck Hansen threw the ball for Max again. Instead of going after it, the dog came running up to Mako, who knelt to receive his drooling adoration. Dark-furred with huge paws, Max possibly had mastiff in him or some other type of bull breed. It was hard to tell. It wasn't as if there were any purebred dogs anymore. After 12 years, the dogs of the world had mingled and interbred and no one really knew what they were anymore except that they were still dogs and played an invaluable role in the fight against the Infected. Whether it was their keen sense of smell or some other sense, dogs had an ability to detect when the Infected were near. They also still liked to be around humans.

“Hey, Max!” Herc called out, following to make sure the dog didn’t get carried away. “Don’t drool over Miss Mori, you bloody idiot,” he said. Then looked up at Mako with a shrug. “He sees a pretty girl and makes a fool of himself.” Mako met his gaze steadily and then looked away. Again, Raleigh sensed something between the two of them and made up his mind to ask Mako about it when they were alone.

Herc’s son Chuck whistled and Max swaggered ran back to him obediently. It wasn't hard to tell that Chuck didn’t like him. The young Australian hadn’t come over to join the conversation, he’d pulled his dog out of it and now he was leaning against the container glaring at his father and Raleigh. 

"There are other Rangers," Pentecost told him,"But they're out on scouting missions or foraging for supplies right now. You'll meet them when they return." 

Mako nodded and continued showing Raleigh around the yard. "The armoury is over there. We have a small supply of guns and explosives but we usually made do with knives machetes, axes and modified gardening tools."

Ironically, while stores of processed food, medicine and power supplies had dwindled – weapons remained as potent as ever and weapons caches were still drawn upon to battle the Infected. Many of the weapons had fallen into the hands of black marketers and organised crime lords.

She introduced him to Xiao Liu, an older woman in her late fifties who studied him with serene dark eyes. "Xiao Liu is part of the medical team." Xiao Liu's dark hair was streaked liberally with grey and drawn back from an unlined face.

"You still have medication?" he asked curiously.

"We forage what we can, but we have people like Xiao Liu who have a huge knowledge of herbal remedies and acupuncture. For the most part, we have found substitutes for most of the key medications." 

"Mako isn't too bad herself," Xiao Liu remarked. 

Mako laughed. "I have lost count of how many tea tree leaves I gathered and boiled for Xiao Liu back in Australia."

"Hey, that's the good stuff," Xiao Liu reminded her. "I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have it."

The world's antibiotics had lost effectiveness years ago and countless lives had been lost as a result of infection. Twelve years after the start of the Contagion and survivors had to rely on natural remedies to treat illnesses. Only the strongest had survived. 

Xiao Liu looked at them both, noting the bruises and injuries on them both that they had sustained during the course of the evening.

"Here," she told them and handed Mako a small bag. Despite her Asian appearance, when she spoke her voice was entirely North American.

"Canadian," she informed Raleigh before he could ask. "My mother taught me what I know about natural remedies. At the time, I thought she was a crackpot. Who knew it would turn out to be so valuable?"

"Absolutely," Raleigh agreed. "It's good to meet you," he told her.

"Polite as well as pretty," Xiao Liu remarked with a smile. She glanced at him and then back at Mako. "Better take some more of this, too," she told Mako and tossed a small package at her, mouth curved in a knowing fashion. There was a faint flush on Mako's cheekbones but she tucked the package into the pocket of her cargo pants.

Mako took him to supplies to requisition a sleeping bag and cot and he carried them back to his new lodgings.

As he passed people in the camp, they nodded at him respectfully. He wasn't sure precisely how many were in the camp. For the most part, they were men ranging from their early teens all the way through to their late fifties but there were many women as well. Various nationalities were also represented and the volunteer group appeared quite multicultural in its composition.

"Sit down," she told him when they arrived back at his room. He sat on the crate and Mako lit a small lantern and began to clean up the cut on his cheek that he hadn't even been aware he had received during the evening's fights. Even minor cuts and scrapes had to be treated quickly to avoid infection. In many ways, the Dark Ages had come again.

With careful fingers, Mako rubbed ointment on the bruise on his jaw and she bandaged up the cut on his arm after wiping it down with disinfectant. His skin was warm and his gaze steady as he watched her. Her manner was business-like despite the close proximity and she moved back when she had finished.

"Your turn," he told her and her dark eyes widened. She sat very still as he cleaned her wounds, smoothing ointment onto bruises and cuts and she held out her hand so that he could bandage the shallow cut from one of the knives.

She reached up and touched the scar on his chin lightly. He didn't move back. 

"It doesn't hurt anymore," he told her with a crooked smile and she tilted her head.

"I think it does," she told him softly. "You left the Defence Corps after your brother died."

"Didn't see the point in staying with my partner gone," he told her flatly. He pulled her to her feet with an easy motion and walked with her to get some food. It wasn't luxury but it was a feast compared to what he was used to – wild rice, fish, buns made of coarse flour and a meat he didn't care to ask about.

The world's supplies of processed foods had vanished long ago and in the earth's survivors were very much back to a basic agrarian existence – sowing and harvesting.

Technology had not vanished completely. The world still had basic tools needed to generate power and electricity but complicated electronics and communications devices were very much a thing of the past. Raleigh missed his iPod, his cell phone, the Internet, movies … the luxuries that electronics had been able to provide. There were times that he yearned for such things again if only to turn his mind from the bleakness of reality.

"So what's your story?" he asked her as they finished eating. "Apart from the fact that you like picking fights with total strangers."

"The Marshall saved me when I was eleven – I was in Tokyo the day it fell."

The Japanese had managed to stave off Infection for almost three years after the fall of San Francisco by closing their borders and preventing anyone from coming in or leaving. The harsh measures had worked for a time, but in the end, even the Japanese were not immune to the Infection. Japan was a wasteland now, the Dead left to roam unchecked as almost all survivors had escaped from the island to other parts of the world long ago.

"My parents died during the fall," she said softly. "The Marshall adopted me and raised me as his own daughter. He took me to Australia with him." 

During the worst of the Contagion, Australia had been one of the safer parts of the planet. An island, the Australians had closed their borders as soon as the Contagion had broken out, they had corralled the infected and the vastness of the Australian continent had meant that it was easier to evade Biters, although Australia's eastern seaboard cities fell as tragically as other cities in the world had.

Nonetheless, Australia had been able to serve as a base of operations for the Defence Corps for a time but then even its Shatterdome had fallen and the Defence Corp had been forced to retreat into the bush and desert to survive. They were still there now, although the majority of the Corps had moved to Hong Kong for this final assault.

"I'm sorry about your parents," Raleigh told her quietly. 

She stared down at her hands. "We've all lost people..."

"Doesn't make it any easier."

She nodded. "Your mother and father died when you were a child?"

Raleigh nodded. "Mom died of cancer … dad walked out on us after that, so we can assume he's dead or shambling around out there somewhere as a no good Biter. Yancy died five years ago in a Biter attack." He looked into her dark eyes. "You don't want me as your partner, Mako. I'm no good to anyone – my old man didn't want me and I couldn't even save my own brother."

"You helped me tonight," she pointed out.

"You didn't need my help," he said with a laugh.

"I felt safer with you fighting by my side." 

He was silent for a moment. "Same." There had been a sense of rightness about having Mako there as they battled the bad guys. It seemed natural to look out for one another.

He exhaled slowly and then made up his mind. "I came back because I wanted to help. Hadn't planned on getting a new partner … but ….now there's you."

"Yes." she agreed. "I'll watch your back," she promised him.

"I can tell," he said with a grin.

He glanced out into the darkness. Across the way, he could see Herc Hansen sitting by the camp fire with Max at his side, watching them, his blue eyes steady and unreadable.

"You going to tell me what's going on between you and Herc Hansen?" Raleigh asked her suddenly.

"He's my father's friend," she answered, not quite meeting his gaze.

"That’s all?" he asked sceptically. "I can see the way he looks at you – the way you look at him."

Mako remained silent. 

"You're in love with him …" Mako said nothing. "He's older … you're his friend's daughter … he's probably being honourable," Raleigh guessed with one raised eyebrow. "I'm guessing the Marshall hasn't got a clue about what's been going on?"

"Of course not," Mako said swiftly and Raleigh smiled wryly.

"Your secret is safe with me," he told her. 

"Thank you," she told him. "Nothing can ever come of it anyway," she told him with regret in her eyes. 

"In this new world, anything goes," he reminded her. He stared narrowly at the faint flush on her pale skin. "And I see that it has." He shrugged. "Don't see the appeal myself, but if I was a girl, I'm sure I'd find him hot, too," he teased her. Then he turned serious. "What made you so sure that we would be good partners?" he asked her curiously.

"I read all your mission reports … the way you described what happened, the way you worked with your brother. The fact that you chose to come to Hong Kong. I just knew," she told him simply. 

He frowned. "Some pretty big assumptions there."

She shrugged. "It was just a feeling." 

He nodded slowly. "I understand going with your gut. Sometimes you just get a feeling about things … or people … " His gaze met hers and she stared back calmly, not looking away even when his mouth curved faintly in a smile that made her feel oddly breathless. 

There was a sound of a throat clearing and Raleigh looked up at the man standing in the doorway of the container, delight and astonishment in his eyes.

"Tendo?"

"None other, my man!" Tendo Choi said with a grin, walking forward to embrace him with affection. "I couldn't believe it when they told me that you were here."

"I'm not sure I can believe it either," Raleigh admitted. "What are you doing here?"

"Logistics man. You don't think we're just going to be strolling into that citadel over there do you? There's lots of planning involved. We need more weapons. More people. More medicine and bandages. I need more maps."

"I would have thought you already had a map of the Shatterdome before you planned this big enterprise, Choi."

"Maps of Hong Kong – to find out where we might be able to rustle up supplies, man," Tendo told him, rolling his eyes as if Raleigh was an idiot.

Mako left them to catch up on old times and walked to the edge of the water, past the rusty hull of an old cargo boat. The water was murky and unwelcoming, probably teeming with Infected floating in the water, skeletal hands with rotting flesh grasping out in the water in search of food. Mako didn't even want to think about what the dank water held in its deep depths.

"Is he what you expected?" Herc's voice asked her as he came up behind her. She turned to look at him.

"Not quite, but perhaps better," she said with a faint smile. The Australian's face was grim and unsmiling, his jaw covered with stubble that she knew gleamed red in the morning sun. She knew what that stubble felt like on her skin just as he knew how she tasted and how her body felt against his. His eyes were blue and steady and they were dark with want – and self-control. 

She turned and walked up to him, staring up into his face. "You are always watching me," she remarked.

"You know why," he said in a low voice. His hand reached out and touched her cheek, allowing his fingertip to trace the smooth skin, lingering on the curve of her full mouth, open hunger on his face.

"People will start noticing if you're not careful," she told him evenly.

"It can't happen again," he told her harshly.

"That's what you said after the first time … and the second time … and the last time," she said with a wry smile. She put her arms around his neck and drew his mouth down on hers. He muttered a curse beneath his breath and his mouth came down hard on hers, tongue sliding into her mouth hungrily. She could taste his desire – it matched hers. Her eyes were closed and she breathed deeply of him. 

When he finally drew back, unsatisfied and frustrated, she was trembling with want. 

Mako couldn't remember when an early childhood crush had turned to desire, when she had started dreaming of the tall man with the drawl in his voice and the smile that slanted his mouth.

Sometimes, she had found herself imagining that he was returning her sidelong glances, that there was also attraction and desire in his steady gaze. Other times, she had felt like he was treating her like the child she no longer was. Not surprising given that despite her extensive training, Pentecost seemed determined to keep her shielded as much as possible from the dangers of the new world.

To her frustration, it hadn't seemed as though anything more would ever be possible. 

Things finally changed however when Pentecost agreed to allow Mako to participate in a mission. She had been insisting for some time that she also be deployed and her determination was only growing in intensity.

"I'm tired of staying back here helping behind the scenes while the rest of you are out there … if I never see active duty – how will I be able to defend myself?" she had demanded of him. He had seen the logic in her argument but it was impossible that she be sent out alone and he simply didn't trust anyone else to look out for her except his old comrade in arms.

Her chance for a mission had come when Chuck was sidelined because of an injury, thereby also side-lining Herc – making him available to be teamed with someone else …


	4. Outback Idyll

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explicit sex in this chapter ... Please cover your eyes if that sort of thing distresses you :)

_One year earlier_

Mako rocked on the balls of her feet with anticipation wondering if Pentecost was finally going to permit her to start making a proper contribution to the cause. She had been working with Xiao Liu in medical, training with the engineering team, honing her fighting skills, mastering survivalist skills – but for what? Nowhere was 'safe', but Mako was fully aware that living in a heavily guarded remote military base in rural New South Wales, Australia was about as safe as one could be.

Herc stood in Pentecost's office curiously, uncertain as to why he had been summoned by Pentecost. Chuck was in the infirmary complaining like a girl about his recently broken arm and Herc had been relegated to perimeter patrol and training the rookies until such time his partner was able to be deployed again.

"I need the two of you to scout out some of the farms to see if there are any salvageable supplies," he told them. One of Herc's eyebrows shot up at the same time Mako's jaw dropped in surprise.

"Close your mouth, you'll catch flies," Herc told Mako with a twisted smile.

While not entirely risk-free – there _were_ no risk-free missions, it had been the safest of all possible missions. Rural Australia because of its vastness did not have the same numbers of Infected that the city centres did. They would certainly encounter Biters but in much more manageable numbers than they would in any of the east coast towns and cities..

It was a two week mission given the frequently large distances between farm properties in Australia even with the solar powered electric bicycles that had been put together by their enterprising techs.

"Babysitter, Stacker? Seriously?" Herc had asked sardonically after Mako had left the room to prepare for the mission, her face flushed with eagerness.

"We need the supplies – a lot of those farms have generators that we can use," Pentecost told him coolly. "There might even be survivors out there."

"Yeah, whatever you say, mate," Herc had told his old friend before walking out of the room.

"Yoh, Mako," he called out to Mako who was walking ahead of him and almost racing towards supplies to start preparing.

"Yes?" she asked, slowing down.

"When we're out there - you do what I tell you, got it?" 

She nodded. "I'll have the maps packed, the provisions ready … compass, first aid kit," she started rattling off a list of things that they were going to bring and Herc held up one hand.

"Steady on, Mako – I need you to listen carefully to me." She bit her lip and nodded. "It's gonna be dangerous out there. I know you're a good fighter and are handy with weapons – of course you're good, Stacker and me trained you personally - but it's worse than hell out there, totally different from your training."

"I understand – I know that I am inexperienced, but I promise you that I won't let you down," she told him earnestly and his mouth twitched slightly.

"We all have to start somewhere," he told her. 

He had to hand it to Mako though, she was a tough cookie – determined and incredibly focused. She managed to keep up with him even though he was setting a bruising pace on the bike. They operated them manually except when tired and during the first few days it was all manual pedalling. Herc kept waiting for Mako to complain, to ask for them to stop so that she could have a rest but she never did. While Chuck made it his life's mission to whinge about everything and piss off his father, Mako kept any complaints to herself.

The roads were tolerable. Split and overgrown with grass, the tar and asphalt still managed to yield enough flat space to make it possible to cycle over. The long dirt roads towards farmhouses were more challenging but the mountain bikes negotiated them well, although it was a bumpy ride for both of them.

At the first two farmhouses, he was amused by her diligence as she noted their location on the map and conscientiously inventoried anything that could be of possible use. A generator, the tools in the tool-shed, the clothing, the bandages … 

The second farmhouse was a potential location for an Enclave given its relative isolation and she listened intently as Herc identified the features that would make it suitable. 

"Nearby stream– full water tank means that they have a lot of rainfall. Solar panels. Good vantage point of the area. There's a vegetable garden … fence here can be bolstered. Barn has two levels."

They became very serious when they arrived at their third farmhouse as it was clear that unlike the first two farmhouses, it was not vacant because its occupants had escaped. The occupants of the third farmhouse had been killed in their homes, as evidenced by the dried blood and dried viscera smeared about the rooms. Despite the years that had passed, the stench was still nauseating and Herc saw Mako swallowing hard in an attempt to keep from throwing up. To her credit, she managed to steady herself, taking shallow breaths and keeping it together.

"You holding it together there?" he questioned before they proceeded.

"Yes," she told him, pressing her pale lips together firmly, her eyes determined.

They had found the former occupants, hungry and rattling about in the rooms of that farmhouse, decayed flesh and empty eyes a cloudy white as they moaned and lunged savagely at the humans who entered the room. A mother, a father and their two children. Two had their throats ripped out and two had bite marks on the mottled grey flesh of arms.

Herc hung back, watching as Mako dispatched them methodically.

"You can decapitate first if you want to minimise risk of a bite. They'll keep chomping but that way they can't reach you."

"That's two moves. This way it's just one," she told him, sticking her blade through the head of the next Biter.

"More spatter that way though," he remarked as he dealt with the grandmother who came lurching towards him from an adjoining room. "Guess someone came home infected and bit the rest of the family." His face was grave despite his off-beat tone.

"Come one, we've got time to make it to one more farm and then we should find a place to sleep for the night," he told her.

They rode at a brisk pace to the final farmhouse for the day while there was still light in the sky. It was abandoned, the occupants clearly having left in a hurry, grabbing their most precious possessions. There was a creek by the house with drinkable water, open space around the house and a moderate fence.

"It'll have to do," Herc commented. "It's too late to start looking for somewhere else." They didn't travel by night. 

They put their stuff on the veranda and began securing the house for the evening, finding cans and other noisy objects to string up to create a primitive early warning systems that would be triggered if any Biter approached. The former owners of the farmhouse had already nailed the windows securely shut with planks of wood and the doors were of heavy timber and could be locked from the inside.

"Bedroom is upstairs – we can block off the stairway." They tore up the curtains to make a rope ladder to hang from the upper bedroom window so that if the exit via the stairs was blocked off, they could jump out of the window.

"Ready?" he asked her and she nodded as they went out for their final sweep of the perimeter before going into the farm-house and locking the door. "Stay close," he ordered her tersely as he held his machete in his hand firmly.

Mako held her two long knives in her hands. A sound distracted her and drew her attention to a streak of colour that ran past … possum? Stray cat? Then she heard the unmistakeable moaning sound from the shadows. Eyes not yet accustomed to the darkness, she strained to look into the blackness of the night, trying to detect from where the sound emerged.

"Biter," she whispered to Herc who was nodding grimly, already circling around the source of the sound. A small group of Biters were at the fence-line, temporarily impeded by the wire fence.

"You stay here," Herc ordered her and walked towards the Biters purposefully. Mako hesitated for a second and then ignored his orders, following him. She clambered over the fence just as he was dispatching the second of the Biters. She was so focused on Herc's activities that she almost didn't hear the sound behind her until it was too late.

A muffled shriek escaped her lips as four more Biters approached from the tree-line. These were fast ones, almost running towards her with a swift, uneven gait. She backed away to regroup. One of them almost reached her as she was swinging out with her knife and her foot snagged in something in the grass. She looked down in horror at a Biter that was crawling along in the long grass and trying to bite through her boot. Although it had no legs, it still had its torso, its arms and most importantly – its teeth.

She managed to stab her knife through the brain of one of the Biters but was still trying to shake off the creeping Biter when two more approached. As a scream of panic escaped her lips, she heard the sickening sound of a machete through bone and Herc had sliced the creeping Biter's hand off and quickly dispatched it with another blow.

"Fuck!" he swore violently, swinging her up into his arms and leaping over the fence, running with her towards the house where slammed the door shut behind them and lit a match with shaking hands and lit the lantern. "Are you bit?" he demanded, pulling off her boots, jacket, t-shirt and jeans that were all covered in disgusting, stinking black blood.

Mako was shaking so violently in shock that she couldn't answer him, merely stood there trembling as he shone the lantern all over her pale body, checking her for bite marks and scratches. He checked her feet to make sure that the Biter hadn't bitten her through the boot.

There was blood on her body but to his relief, none of it was hers.

"Thank Christ," he muttered fiercely, holding her trembling body against his, aware that his heart was pounding loudly and that he was also shaking. "You little idiot," he scolded her. "Don't ever do that again," he told her fiercely. "When I tell you so stay put, you stay put!"

"There were others out there," she exclaimed.

Swearing under his breath he realised that both of them were now covered in sticky, black blood.

Dimming the lantern, he opened the door and led her down to the creek, quickly washing both of them down with the icy water, rinsing the blood away and then hurrying them both inside again before the light could attract any more unwelcome visitors.

They found towels in the cupboard and towelled themselves off, breathing gradually returning to normal and he pulled her back into his arms roughly, holding her against him tightly. "You scared the shit out of me!" he told her angrily, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and then giving her a little shake.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. He suddenly became very conscious that the two of them were wearing almost nothing at all and separated by nothing more than the thin towel that Mako had wrapped around her and that did nothing to hide her full breasts and her bare skin.

Muttering something under his breath, he pulled away from her saying roughly,"Let's go and find some clothes."

The master bedroom had plenty of musty-smelling clothes. Shaking the dust out, they found jeans, plain t-shirts and warm shirts. "We should take some of these with us," he remarked and she nodded as she pulled on the jeans and found a belt to tighten it around her narrow waist.

"You look like a farmer," she said with a smile, admiring how tall and strong he looked in his 'new' clothes. His face had beautiful chiselled angles and his blue eyes were sharp with intelligence. Despite his almost careless Australian drawl, there was a barely concealed power that pulled at her. He was the most attractive man she had ever met.

"You on the other hand don't look anything like any farmer I've ever seen," he told her with a crooked grin, taking in her oversized clothes and huge eyes that made her look like a waif. 

They ate their dinner quickly, their food being a combination of provisions brought from base and also some fruits gathered along the way.

He handed her the water canteen and she took a long swallow, handing it back to him and he also drank deeply. There were two bathrooms and he had put water in the bath tubs and a bucket so that they could flush the toilets which had dried up long ago.

"There's actually a decent supply of loo paper here," he said with a grin.

"Wonderful," she breathed. It was strange how luxurious real toilet paper was these days. "I will put a roll in my backpack. Maybe two."

"Don't go too nuts, Mako," he told her with a smile.

They locked and secured the doors and windows and set up a barrier at the bottom of the stairs. The rope they tied at the window of the master bedroom and would be long enough to reach the ground if they needed to jump. They discussed the escape plan.

"Once you hit the ground – get to the bikes and head for the water tower in the distance. If you can't get to the bike, then run like the clappers. I'll meet up with you there." She nodded.

"You can take the bed," he told her and prepared to spread his sleeping bag out on the floor.

"No," she protested, putting her hand over his. "The bed's big enough for the both of us."

"Your old man would have my head if he knew I'd shared a bed with his little girl," Herc told her with a crooked grin. "The floor's fine for me."

"Please," she whispered in a low voice. _Fuck._ Call him soft, he but he found it impossible to deny her anything when she was looking at him like that. After a long pause, he allowed her to lead him to the bed and he kicked off his boots and carefully stretched out on the side of the bed beneath the covers, remaining as far away from her as possible. 

He blew out the flame in the lantern and stared at the ceiling, wondering how in the hell he had got himself into this predicament. He felt positively lecherous lying in bed with Stacker's daughter. He would have been lying if he said he hadn't noticed how attractive she was. He would never have acted upon the attraction though – not only was she too young for him, she was Stacker's adopted daughter for Christ's sake.

Nonetheless, he found it hard to fall asleep with her lying beside him. It had been a very long time since he had lain in bed with a woman with nothing happening … 

The night was very quiet … except for a faint moaning sound in the distance, the sound of cans banging against one another …

They both sat up and he held a finger to his lips to silence her.

Both crept to the window and peered out cautiously from behind the curtains. The moon was bright and they could see figures shuffling in the distance. Groups of the Infected wandering aimlessly in the night. Occasionally, one would stop and put its head back, almost as if it was sniffing the air or looking for something. Mako's breathing was shallow as she watched the Biters milling about the farmhouse. She bit down hard on her lower lip.

Herc watched grimly, willing the bastards to keep walking past them. 

"Nothing to see here," he thought. "Just keep going."

Both exhaled slowly and with profound relief when the Biters continued to walk, shambling awkwardly and swiftly into the distance in search of unseen prey.

"Still want to be a Ranger?" he asked her softly and she nodded as they made their way back to the bed.

She crawled under the quilt again, shivering uncontrollably. Herc reached out absently and drew her against him in the darkness. She curled up against his hard body like a kitten, resting her head against his chest. He was like a furnace and she stretched out against his warmth.

Herc exhaled slowly, willing his body to behave, trying to control the involuntary response of his body. She felt too good, too soft and pliant … so sweet and incredibly sexy despite her innocence.

"Are you all right?" she asked him in concern when he groaned. Her hand reached down to touch his face.

"Fine," he told her tightly. "But for both our sakes – stop touching me," he suggested, as her fingertips traced his face, lingering on his mouth.

"But I don't want to," she told him softly and she kissed him on the mouth. Her kiss was clumsy and awkward but desire hit Herc violently like a fist to the gut.

"This is a really, really bad idea, Mako," he told her in a strained voice.

"I know I'm doing it wrong … show me how to do it properly." 

He groaned and pulled her into his arms, his hands sliding down to her slim hips, pressing her against his erection which was thrusting up against her through the thick fabric of their clothing. 

He rolled her onto her back and his mouth covered hers hungrily for a moment. Then he drew back, his mouth brushing over hers lightly before pulling away. He nibbled at her lips gently, tantalising her. He cupped her face, teaching her how to kiss him, her lips moving under this, tentatively and wonderingly.

He unbuttoned her shirt, pulling it off her, his hand sliding beneath her t-shirt to touch her breasts, his calloused fingertips brushing against her nipples which were aroused and very sensitive.

Mako gasped at his touch, overwhelmed by the unfamiliar sensations that swept over her. 

Herc's hands returned to her face and he held her as he parted her lips, his tongue sliding into her willing mouth. Mako whimpered, eyes closing as pleasure crept through her body. He dominated her mouth, his tongue plunging and caressing, showing her how to pleasure how to respond.

She moaned low in her throat. He felt very good against her ... his touch was demanding. 

She arched closer to him, wanting more. "Please don't stop," she whispered. 

"I don't think I could," he told her, pulling her t-shirt over her head and unbuckling her belt and pulling her jeans down her slender legs. Herc’s voice sounded hoarse, utterly unlike the easy-going man she knew.

Her nipples rubbed against the cotton of his shirt and Mako pulled him closer.

He traced kisses across her jaw line and traced his mouth down her throat until he found the pulse in her neck. 

Her small hands went to his shirt impatiently and with a low laugh, he pulled off his clothes and tossed them to the floor carelessly. His body was breathtaking. Lean, muscled and deeply tanned. She wanted to run her hands all over his skin. She pressed her mouth to the warm flesh of his chest.

Herc gave a low laugh when Mako’s eyes widened at the sight of his cock, large, thick and long … 

"So I'm guessing you haven't done this before?" he questioned, lowering her back to the bed.

She shook her head, wide-eyed and trembling with arousal. 

"Shit," he muttered. "You know it hurts the first time, right?" he asked her and she nodded. "Of course – I'm not stupid."

He laughed shakily and leaned down and brushed his mouth across hers gently. She reached a hand out to touch him, running her fingertips across his cheek, feeling the stubble along his jaw.

"No, just inexperienced," he said softly. "Let's see what I can do to make your first time better," he told her, trailing his cool mouth down her neck, down to her breasts where he lingered momentarily to suckle lightly on her nipples, sending a sharp stab of pleasure between her thighs.

Her eyes widened when his mouth slid down her flat stomach and he placed his hands on her thighs and parted her legs. 

Herc’s hand slid up Mako’s leg. He let his hand slide over her body and then hover over her damp heat. She was slick and wet and gasped at his touch. 

She whimpered a little. 

“It’s all right. I want to make this better for you," whispered. 

Her head lolled back on the pillow.

“Christ, you’re so wet,” he said hoarsely as whimpers escaped her lips.

His thumb went to her clit and caressed while he slid one finger inside her. “You are so tight.” She was throbbing against him, swollen and throbbing. 

He groaned as he felt her muscles clamping down on his finger. With an effort, he managed to get a second finger into her tightness. 

He stroked her and smiled in grim pleasure as his fingers slid over just the right spot to make her stiffen and gasp with pleasure. He continued to press and rub her, his thumb applying skilful pressure to her extremely sensitive flesh. Her breath quickened even more. 

“Herc…” she panted helplessly. 

“Does it feel good?” he asked her huskily. 

She nodded frantically finding herself unable to find the words to express quite how good it felt.

He continued to stroke her, keeping her on the edge of climax.

“So damned tight …” he muttered again, not caring that he was repeating himself. He didn't care about anything about how sexy it was to have her squirming in pleasure on the bed beneath him.

She arched against him when he lowered his head to kissed the smooth flesh of her inner thigh and continued pleasuring her with his fingers. She could feel the rasp of his stubble against her skin, feel the heat of his breath. He rubbed against her harder and faster, relentlessly. Mako had awoken from dreams before with an ache and a throb between her thighs but never like this, never with such intensity.

Her back arched, her skin tingling and damp. She gulped in shallow breaths. 

"Come," he told her hoarsely.

She stiffened, her climax making her shudder in his arms. His eyes were dark and hungry as he watched Mako’s body shudder with her climax until she slumped in his arms. 

He continued to apply pressure and then Mako gasped in shock when he replaced his long fingers with his mouth. His tongue slipped in and out, plunging deep and hard. Another climax started to build inside her, she could feel the slow, inexorable throbbing as her body demanded a second release. 

“Please …” 

He caught her clit between his teeth and his fingers pleasured her simultaneously. She spasmed again, the violence of her second climax as powerful as her first and Herc continued to hold her tight and safe as her body jerked in his arms. 

Before she could regain her calm, he settled himself between her legs, sliding his fingers through her hair. He pulled lightly, lifting her head until she caught his eyes. 

“I swear … if it was possible for me to stop, I would ….” he told her huskily.

"Don't stop," she told him urgently.

"I couldn't possibly stop," he told her. His voice was hoarse. He started pressing himself against her damp heat and began to slowly sink into her. 

"Fuck," he muttered. She was so tight, gripping him in a way that threatened to make him lose control immediately. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to take her inch by inch, slowly sliding inside her, giving her body time to adjust to the new sensations, to his body invading hers. 

She whimpered and he kissed her, his tongue sliding against hers as he paused for a moment before sliding back a little and then sinking down again. 

She made a sound of discomfort and he held himself very still, breathing ragged. Then he withdrew a little, rocking against her before he thrust smoothly, pushing past the barrier and into her tightness.

Mako stiffened, her eyes wide at the strangeness of the sensation of him inside her. Herc's lips were soothing against. “Almost there, sweetheart. Just a little more … You're doing great … just breathe for me ...” 

She did, and relaxed enough for Herc to sink in another inch. 

“Maybe you're too big,” Mako said with a gasp.

"You can take it," he promised her.

She opened her eyes and stared at him, arching up against him to take him deeper.

All self-control snapped and with a guttural sound, Herc withdrew almost all the way and then thrust deep inside her tight body. After only the slightest of resistance, she yielded and he sank into her again. Mako gasped, holding Herc tightly. 

“See? It fits,” Herc murmured, tilting her chin up and kissing her hard. 

She was so tight around him.

His hand left her breast and trailed down to her clit, gently pressing. Mako’s eyes widened. Her breathing grew shallow. 

“Please.” 

Herc withdrew again and thrust again. She clung to him tightly. With an almost inhuman self-control he kept his thrusts steady and controlled, not wanting to let himself go even though every muscle of his body screamed at him to fuck her so hard that neither of them could breathe. He eased in and out, so slowly that he saw her eyes roll back in mindless pleasure as wordless sounds came out of her mouth. She was muttering something over and over in Japanese.

“Mako, come,” Herc whispered, his hand reaching down to touch her clit again. 

When he was deep inside her again, she clutched at him, her fingers digging into his arms and as he slid in and out.

He captured her cries with his mouth, gripping her hips hard and thrusting into her again. She tilted her hips up, meeting him thrust for thrust.

He could feel her body gripping him hard, throbbing around him. A low shout came from his mouth as he came, pouring himself into her.

Finally sated, his shaking arms gave way, and he collapsed onto Mako heavily, breathing deeply of her sweet scent, telling the voice in his head to shut up and let him just enjoy the moment.

When his breathing returned to normal, he pulled away from her reluctantly even as she protested. He felt the warm rush of liquid trickle down her leg as he withdrew. He came back to the bed with a cloth and tipped water from the canteen onto the cloth. 

"Sex is messy," he told her with a crooked grin as he wiped her down, cleaning away the blood and semen. "There's been many an argument about the wet patch," he told her as he got up to put the canteen and cloth away. 

Staring at the blood on the cloth, he felt like a lecherous bastard. He'd never been one for deflowering virgins … this was certainly a first. 

He'd never felt so aroused or out of control – it was almost frightening. It wasn't as if he was starved for sex. It had been many years since Angela's death and he certainly hadn't been a monk in the intervening years. He enjoyed sex and had indulged in it with the many women around the base who had pursued him. None of them had ever made him come this hard. None of them made him feel like he'd just had all the breath knocked out of his body. He suspected that he was a goner.

He slid back into the bed beside Mako. "Go to sleep," he told her as he gathered her back into his arms, his hand resting on her breasts, his fingers stroking gently as he told himself over and over again that this was just sex and attraction and nothing more.

*

Mako's eyes opened slowly and she became conscious that she was naked and lying next to an equally naked Herc Hansen. The faint throbbing pain between her thighs told her that last night's activities had not been a dream.

She leaned over and kissed his mouth. His eyes snapped open but then warmed as he looked up into her eyes.

As she got out of bed, he saw her wince slightly. "You going to be all right to ride a bike?" he asked her ruefully and she nodded.

They washed their faces and brushed their teeth.

He helped her dress, clipping her bra for her and as she turned around and slid back into his arms, they kissed slowly and lingeringly. Herc backed her against the wall, kissing her hard as she whimpered and tried to pull him closer.

"No … it's too soon. You're still sore … and fuck. This can't happen again," he muttered under his breath as he glanced at the blood stains on the bed and at Mako's swollen mouth.

He stomped downstairs to pack their bags and finish taking notes about the condition of the farm.

Mako watched him leave and retrieved the rope ladder from the window, stuffing it into her backpack along with the toilet paper, some extra toothbrushes and all the bandages she could find in the medicine cabinet. 

When Mako went outside to join him, she was bemused to find that he had strapped a small cushion to her bicycle seat to lessen her discomfort.

"Ready?" he asked her and she nodded.

Herc wondered how he was going to keep his hands off of her for the next thirteen nights.

He didn't.

*

"You know this can't happen again," he mumbled after their end of their first week together and many farms later. Mako was stretched out on top of him in the bed, slumped on him bonelessly, his hands stroking her bare back lingeringly.

"You keep saying that," she said with a smile, kissing the corner of his mouth.

"Not my fault you can't keep your hands off of me," he commented dryly, his blue eyes gleaming with amusement.

"You were the one who started it tonight," she reminded him.

"Are you sure that's the first time you've gone down on a man?" he asked her quizzically. She nodded. He'd almost died of pleasure. "You're a fast learner."

"I've had a very, _very_ good teacher," she told him and her warm, soft mouth slid down his body to show him just what an excellent student she was.

They didn't just fuck. They scouted and did their work. There was a lot of talking. Without even realising he was doing it, he told her about Angela, about her life, about her death, about his feelings of grief. He told her about Chuck – the tense relationship, his feelings of pride and frustration, his feelings of regret.

In turn she told him about her parents, the day she lost them, what it was like to grow up with Stacker Pentecost as a father. 

"Is that why you were still a virgin?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know … I was busy studying … working … fighting. There hasn't been time for anything else."

He also took his teaching duties seriously and he trained her, testing her fighting moves, making sure that they both stayed sharp. 

There was also sex and a lot of it. 

"Birth control?" he asked her one night as she lay slumped beneath him, face down on the floor, stickiness trickling down her leg as he pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. He'd called it 'doggy style' and it had been very exciting to have him gripping her hips, thrusting hard into her from behind.

"I have been taking something," she told him.

"Should I ask why you were so prepared?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. She smiled and shook her head and he picked her up and carried her to the bed.

A week later and there wasn't an inch of her body he hadn't explored or lavished with kisses. She had returned the favour willingly. Neither spoke about how things would be when they returned to 'reality', when they had to pretend that none of this had taken place between them.

On the second last night of their mission, they lay in the bed of yet another abandoned farmhouse, barricaded in as usual. 

Mako stiffened as she heard the sound of cans rattling … She stared into Herc's face. He was also wide-awake.

"I heard it, too," he told her softly. They waited for a few breathless seconds in case it was merely the wind.

Then they heard the heavy tread of many uneven footsteps downstairs on the wooden veranda. 

"Crap," Herc muttered.

Both were instantly out of bed, pulling on their clothes, socks and shoes. Mako pulled her backpack on.

They heard the thud of the Dead hurling themselves at the doors and windows downstairs. They had boarded up the windows and secured the doors but depending on how many of them there were, the Dead could apply so much pressure that wood would bend and snap …

"Christ, there must be a hell of a lot of them," Herc muttered when he heard the sound of wood giving way. There was a shattering of glass and the inexorable sound of the Infected approaching. 

They could hear the creaking of the floorboards downstairs, the sound of furniture toppling over and other noises as the Dead were momentarily tangled in the clothesline they had wrapped around the bottom of the stairs.

Before long though, they could hear the heavy tread and shuffle of the Infected making their way up the stairs. Herc crossed to the window and pulled it open, testing the rope to make sure it could bear their weight. He held the window open so that Mako could clamber out into the night air and he followed her, holding onto the rope as he closed the window. He could hear the scraping of many finger nails on the wood of the bedroom door, hear the repetitive moaning and saw the hinges of the door strain against the pressure being applied.

Looking down, they saw that the house was almost surrounded, dozens and dozens of Infected swarming into the house. As usual, their bikes were hidden a distance away from the farm for just this reason, so that they would not be trapped.

"I'm going to go down first," he told her. "Then you climb down as far as you can and then jump - I'll catch you."

She nodded. They were running out of time as more of the Dead swarmed into the house. They had broken down the door of the bedroom and were milling in the bedroom, reaching through the window with rotting hands and gaping mouths, their hunger making them desperate and frenzied.

Herc quickly rappelled down the rope, landing lightly on the ground. One of the Infected managed to push its way out of the window and was staggering towards Mako on the roof. She quickly scrambled down the rope.

"Now Mako!" Herc ordered and she jumped, the breath being knocked out of her body as she fell into Herc's arms.

The horde were almost upon them and he seized her hand and they began to run. Some of the Infected were slow and easy to outrun. Others were faster. This horde had a combination of both and Mako lengthened her stride.

They seized their bicycles and climbed on, pedalling down the road away from the horde at a furious pace.

"You still sure you want to be a Ranger?" Herc demanded, a grin on his face, crazily exhilarated by their narrow escape.

"Yes," she told him emphatically, grinning back at him as they hurtled into the darkness.

* * *

Now, standing in the shipyard in Hong Kong, their first mission in outback Australia seemed to be a world away. 

Once they had returned to base, it had been necessary to be circumspect and their opportunities to be alone together were few and far between. The occasional touch of the hand, a kiss or quick coupling snatched in a darkened corner. The rest of the time, they were merely able to exchange glances, hoping that no one else would notice. Both longed for that almost idyllic time when they were alone together.

"You can't pretend that you don't care about me," she told him softly.

"You know how I feel about you. But just because I want you doesn't mean that I should have you," he told her softly and he pressed his lips to her forehead and walked away from her.

"Poor man, so … what is it you say? Tortured," Mako heard Sasha Kaidanovsky's voice say from the shadows. 

Mako turned and stared. "Don't worry, little sister - I won't tell anyone – although I think everyone except the Marshall know that the two of you have got it bad. You've fucked him of course?" Sasha asked and gave a soft laugh when colour flamed in Mako's cheeks. "I’m sure he was very, very good at it – he has that look of a man who knows how to please a woman." Her low laugh was earthy and knowing.

Sasha walked forward and indicated that Mako should sit. She dropped lightly to the ground beside her.

"Men like Hercules Hansen are honourable, but he has old fashioned and outdated ideas about honour," Sasha told her, her large, heavy-lidded blue eyes very keen and observant. "You need to take charge. My Aleksis was like that when we were younger – he was from a poor family, I was from a rich one." She shrugged. "He thought himself unworthy and tried to stay away."

She spread her hands expressively. "It was up to me to take charge."

"It's not so easy," Mako told the older woman quietly.

"And now you have made things complicated by bringing Raleigh Becket here. Is he to be your partner or your lover, Mako?" Sasha asked her curiously.

"My partner. A Ranger must have a partner," Mako said emphatically.

There was a smile of affection in Sasha's eyes. There was something endearing about the way Mako Mori idolised the Rangers. Even though they no longer existed in a formal sense, their legend and their ways still continued amongst the few Rangers who still lived and clearly Mako Mori yearned to join their ranks.

"Do you think the Marshall would ever permit yourself to join the mission, Mako?"

"If I prove myself," Mako told her. "The mission is more important than I am, than his personal feelings."

"True," Sasha told her, her eyes narrowing. 

"I'm familiar with Shatterdome technology– I can operate the defence mechanisms .. I know how to repair the circuitry. I can fight just as good as you – you know it's true." 

It was true. The two women had sparred previously and were indeed evenly matched. Even Aleksis had found it difficult to best the young woman every time.

Sasha turned and looked at Mako. 

"I will never see my country again, little sister. I know that I will die here ... in this strange place…" Her calm certainty caused a chill to slide across Mako's skin and she shivered. "Everyone I've ever loved is gone except Aleksis." She remembered finding her parents infected and standing in their home, covered in blood and terrifyingly transformed. She had killed her own parents, or killed the creatures that now lived within their mutilated bodies.

There was a quiver of emotion in Sasha's voice and her eyes gleamed with dampness. "Aleksis and I will never have children, we will never have the family that we once dreamed of. We make this sacrifice gladly," she told Mako. "But you – there is no need for you to run so impulsively into the arms of death. This world needs a future." 

Mako frowned. "You're not going to die. I'm going to be on the mission. I will support and protect you," she said stubbornly. 

"The Dead are hungry, little sister, and I have eluded their grasp for many, many years," Sasha told her with an almost unearthly smile. "But come, no more talk of such morbid things. I saw the way Becket looked at you – perhaps you will become … what does Tendo call it? Post-modern."

Mako's body tightened at the thought of being with _both_ Herc and Raleigh. The feeling was almost overwhelming and Sasha gave a low laugh. "You would be a very happy woman were that to come to pass. Me? There has never been anyone for me except Aleksis."

She looped her arm through Mako's and led her back to the main area and Mako's face was very thoughtful and contemplative.


	5. First Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako and Raleigh go on their first mission together.

When Mako and Sasha walked back into the main assembly area, Mako smiled to see Raleigh and Tendo sitting with the Wei Triplets on storage crates and playing cards.

She stood a short distance away watching them, seeing the frustration and amusement on the players' faces as they discarded cards, picked up new cards and feigned confidence in the cards they held. 

Cheung, Hu and Jin Wei weren't as inscrutable as they might like and Cheung in particular was looking a little too gleeful about the cards in his hand. She had played cards with him enough times to know exactly what that expression meant although she of course said nothing and let Raleigh find out for himself.

Looking up, Raleigh saw her standing nearby and smiled. It was a smile that curved his mouth, lit up his eyes and made him look much younger.

"I won't be long – I'm on the way to losing all my possessions – not that I've got that much to lose," he told her with a grin.

"It's possible that he's pretending that he's a bad player," Cheung Wei told her with a smile in his dark eyes.

"That's not possible, is it?" she asked him as Hu and Jin Wei nodded emphatically. "He came to us with a very sad story of not having played in years."

"Hey, I've lost every hand so far," Raleigh protested a little too emphatically.

"No one's that bad at cards," Hu pointed out.

"This guy plays the long game – don't trust him," Tendo said with a wink.

"I suppose you're going to insist on going out on the intelligence gathering mission tomorrow," Pentecost spoke, suddenly appearing at her side. Mako was used to the Marshall's habit of suddenly appearing unexpectedly and didn't jump in the way that many did.

Mako nodded. "You said that I couldn't go if I didn't have a partner – so I went and found a partner," she told him coolly, her gaze very direct and challenging.

"You've met this man for the first time today – and you want to go out on an active mission with him."

"You told me he was one of the best, _sensei_ ," she told him coolly. "I trust him."

"Mako – "

"I'm not a child any longer. I respect you, I am grateful to you but I am not going to have this discussion anymore. I want to do my part," she told him stubbornly. 

"I've created a monster," Pentecost said ruefully and gave a smile that did not reach his dark eyes. "You may go on the intel mission with Mr Becket – as a trial."

"Thank you," she told him politely and watched as he walked away.

She turned back to watch the card players, smiling when Raleigh finally gave up, tossing his cards on the crate that functioned as a table and rising to his feet.

"We'll continue this another day," he promised them, going to stand beside Mako who stood staring at him with her calm, watchful gaze.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow?" he asked, glancing down at her curiously.

"We're on a scouting mission for supplies," she told him. "We scout and mark locations on the map. We leave retrieval to the others." 

"OK," he replied. He'd ended up in the place he had wanted to be although he hadn't quite foreseen the paths that would bring him here. He had certainly never expected to be standing her in the darkness staring into the face of a young Japanese woman with fierce eyes and such impressive fighting prowess. 

"If you are tired, Mr Becket then perhaps we can go to our rooms."

"Sure, that sounds good," he replied and walked with her back to the large, rusting shipping container. Nothing separated their 'rooms except space and he watched as she unrolled her sleeping bag and put it on the ground in her corner of the container.

It was dark except for the faint glow of a small lantern that Mako had lit. Glancing up he noted that the container had solid metal bearers. Earlier he had noticed that the roof and external cladding were also in good condition.

"You know – back in the day, people used to actually convert these into homes," he remarked as he unrolled his own sleeping bag.

Mako nodded. "Yes, these aren't as comfortable. They get very hot during the day as they aren't insulated … but it's better than sleeping out in the open."

"I've done my fair share of that," he said with a grimace.

Wordlessly, they went about their evening ablutions, washing their faces, brushing their teeth. She pointed him in the direction of the makeshift huts that served as the base's latrines. "Don't fall in," she said with a smile and handed him the lantern.

He returned a little while later. "It wasn't as bad as I was expecting," he commented as he handed the lantern back to her.

"We have some very clever people here," she told him, referring to the resourceful personnel who had managed to turn something as basic as a pit toilet into a composting toilet. Combining waste with sawdust, coconut coir and peat moss to support aerobic processing in a controlled manner. Maintaining an hygienic living environment was critical and even simple things like waste treatment could not be overlooked.

He kicked off his shoes and pulling off his shirt before sliding into his sleeping bag. It smelled of herbs and whatever else they had used to clean and disinfect it.

Mako knelt and placed low dishes on the ground, burning herbs to keep the mosquitoes and other insects at bay as they slept. Raleigh sniffed at the air. He also knew that many herbs naturally repelled insects and Mako appeared to be burning a small pot pourri of fragrant herbs.

"What do you use?"

"Whatever we have. Lemongrass, cedarwood, basil, eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint, rosemary, thyme, onions and marigolds all work against different insects. Xiao Liu always plants herbs anywhere and everywhere we go – not just to harvest but because they help keep the insects away." She smiled. "Sometimes we use orange peel as well but we haven't had any oranges lately." She glanced at him. "There is also ointment here if this is not enough," she told him. 

"You're a herbalist as well as a Ranger?" he asked her with a smile.

Mako shrugged. "We all have to be multi-skilled." She didn’t mention that some of her most soothing hours were spent with Xiao Liu, grinding herbs, mixing and distilling. The older woman had lost all of her own family a long time ago and carried the same air of loss and sadness that so many in the camp had. "You'll have to learn, too. I'll teach you how to make a mosquito coil."

"Sounds like fun," he murmured dryly. 

"It is – they're made with pyrethrum powder – the powder made from the dried heads of Chrysanthemum flowers."

"I guess I'll have to think of something impressive that I can teach you then," he remarked and she nodded and went to her sleeping bag.

He stared up at the ceiling and then the room was filled with blackness as Mako extinguished the light. He could hear the very faint murmur of voices outside and the whisper of the wind. There was no low, moan that caused the skin to shiver, no sound of feet shuffling on the ground. He almost felt safe. Not quite.

Through the doorway of the shipping container he could see the stars in the clear sky. The pollutants that had clouded Hong Kong's skies had dissipated with the disappearance of cars, factories and heavy industry. Now, the skies above Hong Kong were as filled with stars as the most remote and distant of forests.

"Just because I'm still here doesn't mean that I've agreed that we're going to be partners," he felt the need to remind Mako.

"OK," she replied and he could sense the smile in her voice.

 _"Oyasuminasai_."

" _Oyasuminasai_ ," she replied. 

She fell asleep quickly and he could hear the steady sound of her breathing. It took him a little longer to fall asleep. He was too used to being alone and needing to remain vigilant. His body was still tense and on edge and he lay on the hard floor of the container and willed himself to relax just enough to drop off into sleep.

*

Mako woke up to the sound of early morning birdsong. 

Although the people in the camp rose early, it was second nature to move quietly and there were none of the usual sounds that one would expect given the number of people in the camp. No clang and clatter, no absent-minded chatter. Conversations were always hushed and quiet, every movement was designed to minimise sound. Even the canine squads were quiet. Somehow their affinity with humans had taught them to minimise noise and movement to limit danger to their human companions. 

She turned her head and stared at the dark heap in the corner of the shipping container that was Raleigh Becket. He was a quiet sleeper. Like most people he had nightmares but even his nightmares were quiet – like her own. As they battled night terrors, their subconscious protected them by muting sound, doing what was necessary to reduce the risk of attracting the unwelcome attentions of the Dead.

She slid out of her sleeping bag and rolled it up again. The movement woke Raleigh up and she saw him blinking up at the ceiling in momentary confusion.

"Good morning, Mr Becket," she greeted him politely. He turned his head and smiled at her.

"Good morning."

She averted her eyes politely as he slid from his sleeping bag and pulled a t-shirt over his bare torso. His hair was tousled but his eyes were bright and alert as he scanned the busy activity of the morning camp. The Wei Triplets walked past as the two of them were brushing their teeth.

" _Zaoshang hao_ " (Good morning in Mandarin), Mako greeted them as they responded with,"Ohayou Gozaimasu" (Good morning in Japanese). Raleigh watched as Mako rinsed and then spat out the toothpaste and water onto the basin, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand.

"You missed a spot," he remarked, noting the toothpaste residue near the corner of her full, unpainted mouth. His body tightened slightly as her pink tongue slid out and licked. He walked up to her and brushed the toothpaste away with his thumb. Her pupils dilated as they stared up at him but she did not move away.

They ate a quick breakfast as Tendo gave them all a quick briefing, outlining Ranger teams and their search grids. 

"We are focusing on the area that used to be known as the Mong Kok – over 4.3 km away. Part of the road has collapsed but we know that there was a large concentration of supermarkets, department stores, bookstores and drug stores here. Don't even bother looking at the food or the meds, they're no good to us. If you find maps of the area, information about the location of camping stores, military surplus stores, hardware stores – bring those back. If you find clothing, boots, shoes, waterproof gear, bandages, bottles - any significant number of plastic containers, medical and anatomy textbooks - make a note and we'll send the regulars in on a recovery mission."

Stacker Pentecost was standing at Tendo's left. "Team - your main objective is intel." He spoke in a quiet voice but they could all hear him clearly. "Do your damndest to avoid the Biters. If for some reason you end up with a horde in pursuit – lead them away from the camp before returning – we are in no way fortified for an all out stampede by a horde."

Raleigh looked into his backpack at his supplies and equipment. "Solar powered walkie talkies?" he asked.

"They're a bit crap," Herc Hansen told him. "They're supposed to be one hour solar charging for two hours standard use but these days it's 2 hours charging for barely an hour of use. Bloody dodgy Chinese technology," he remarked, slanting a provocative grin at Cheung Wei who grinned back, unoffended.

"Stupid Aussie bogan," he countered.

"What's the range?" Raleigh asked.

"About 7 kilometres give or take."

"That's about 4.3 miles, _yank_ ," Chuck drawled insultingly, his hostile eyes dark with contempt. "Try not to get in trouble out there you two – we haven't got the time to babysit." Chuck told them. His dislike was levelled at both Mako and Raleigh in equal parts and Raleigh saw Herc's jaw tighten but the older man said nothing to correct his son.

Chuck walked off to talk to the Wei Triplets and Herc took the opportunity to speak with Mako and Raleigh. "Raleigh – I am sure you know this but keep your weaponry light – knives, machetes, steel rods. We all carry a gun but to be honest, this was such a densely populated area that gunfire brings the mongrels running from everywhere so you're best off not firing a gun if you can avoid it." 

Raleigh nodded. "If you think you're about to get trapped, there's dye and chalk in your backpack so that you can leave a mark outside so that we can try to find you again. Head for high ground and send off one flare –anyone in the area will try to come and help and HQ will deploy regulars to come and provide a diversion. Be careful about trees ... some of these fuckers can climb a tree. Duc and Kaori …" 

Herc closed his eyes momentarily and swallowed hard and did not finish whatever he had started to say. "Never mind – just be careful about trees, ok?"

The Kaidonovskys joined them. Sasha had her long blond hair in a braid wrapped in a tight coil and she carried a long and deadly looking knife in her hand which she slid into the sheath hanging from the leather belt around her narrow waist. Aleksis wore a black leather jacket and had trimmed his hair and beard. It was dangerous to go into the field with long hair.

"This is a week-long mission as we expect it is going to take some time for you to work through the collapsed buildings, roads and cut through the forest overgrowth. Check in with HQ once a day at the designated time. Conserve the power on your walkie talkies." Pentecost's voice was very grave.

His gaze rested on Mako's face. Raleigh wondered if he would say anything specific to him – telling him to keep her safe or to make sure she came back … that he was a dead man if anything happened to Mako. 

Mako knew different. Pentecost was careful not to show favouritism and a young Mako Mori had been forced to work and fight harder than anyone else in the Shatterdome.

When the Rangers eventually walked to the gate, Raleigh glanced around at the crowds of people who gathered to see them leave. 

The Wei Triplets were the first to leave, with a grin and a wave, they disappeared into the thickness of the forest, running lightly and silently.

"Stay safe little sister," Sasha told Mako and then she and her husband were gone.

"Come on old man, time's a wasting and neither of us is getting any younger here – particularly you," Chuck told his father disrespectfully and Herc's eyes grew wintery. Shooting a glare at his son, he paused in front of Mako and Raleigh.

"Stay safe – both of you," he told them. Mako was silent and still as she watched the Australian and his son jog into the forest.

"You ready?" Raleigh asked and Mako nodded.

They had both studied the map of where they were going and knew that they had some running to do. In the past, before the Contagion, it would have been possible to walk to their destination in a little under an hour. These days however, thick forests, wandering hordes, collapsing buildings and deteriorating roads blocked the way.

"Let's go," Mako told him and they began a slow and steady jog.

*

By the end of the first day of the mission, Raleigh was impressed by the determination and resourcefulness of his new 'partner'. She jogged without complaining through the sweltering humidity. Although much of the forest had consumed the previously densely populated apartment blocks and commercial buildings that they passed, the Dead still lingered – whether from habit or hunger was unclear. 

The two avoided encounters where possible, stepping quietly past dormant hordes that stood in clusters as though in a trance, scrambling up the sides of buildings to avoid as little open-air walking as possible. Now and then it wasn't possible to avoid a confrontation and they dispatched the lurching Biters swiftly and as silently as they could.

Raleigh sensed no blood lust or glee in Mako as she killed. She was methodical, matter-of-fact and deliberate. Like him, she killed where she needed to do so but took no joy in the act itself.

For the most part they maintained silence. Words seemed unnecessary as they were attuned to one another in a manner that was almost disconcerting - selecting pathways and roads wordlessly. 

Without much difficulty, they had located the Princess Margaret Hospital in south Kwai Chung. In its day it had been a major hospital primarily serving the Kwai Tsing District.

With over 1,200 beds and a staff of 3,000 it had been hit hard during the Contagion and the Rangers were very cautious as they had approached the abandoned concrete structure that had maintained its shape but had that gaunt, fatigued appearance that all of humanity's old structures now had. Nature was winning and the buildings seemed to know it. 

Mako logged the location of the pharmacy as well as the library while Raleigh scanned the area. Although most of the inhabitants had wandered away long ago, many remained trapped in the building, wailing and moaning their hunger, their decaying hands clutching at the air in the direction of the Rangers as their white sightless eyes stared right through them.

They trod carefully through the broken glass, shattered tiles and dried blood and desiccated tissue that littered the grounds of the hospital. Although thick dust and mud had swept into the hospital and insects and small animals had taken up occupation in the hospital, looking at the blood-stained floors and walls, broken doors and smashed windows, it was not difficult to imagine the last moments of the hospital and its terrified staff and patients.

"Careful," Raleigh pointed out a jagged nail pointing out of a wall and stained with blood and rust.

He had seen more than one person die in agony of tetanus in the years following the Contagion. Although basic antibiotics had been cultured by the medics and most people ensured that they cleaned wounds as thoroughly and as early as possible, such steps were not always sufficient to avoid tetanus taking hold. 

The latest instance he had witnessed had been a young child who had cut himself on the rusty wire fence on the edge of an Enclave. It had just been a small cut but too young to have ever received a tetanus vaccination and had the benefit of the residual albeit faint immunity, a couple of days later he had started suffering stroke-like symptoms on the side of his face. He had then started having cramps across his face, his face contorting as he screamed in pain.

The medics knew exactly what plagued the boy but without the medicines to treat it, had been able to do nothing to reduce his suffering. Raleigh had watched as the boy's whole body arched, his thin arms going up in the air, cramping everywhere as his jaw muscles had spasmed and then locked.

He had been present during the child's final moments, witnessing sustained spasms of the back muscles and then the glottis. The boy had died in horrible agony. "I've not seen a case of tetanus in an unvaccinated person that didn't end in a horrible death," he remarked soberly. "Even among the vaccinated – the protection levels are pretty low."

Mako nodded. "That's partly why we need to take the Shatterdome back."

As well as critical medical equipment and supplies, each Shatterdome had a repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins. Although the medications would have long expired, the Shatterdomes also contained highly secure biocontainment facilities designed to isolate biological agents from biosafety level 1 through to biosafety level 4. From these samples and the detailed notes in the Shatterdome archives, it would theoretically be possible for the survivors to re-develop vaccines, antiviral drugs and diagnostic tests.

"How do we know that Hong Kong's repository is still viable?" Raleigh questioned. The Shatterdomes had been designed to function off the grid, relying on sustainable energy sources but other Shatterdomes in the world had been completely destroyed and their repositories had been rendered useless.

"Although Hong Kong Shatterdome was overrun, intel indicates that it has not been destroyed and critical scientific, medical and research areas are still being powered." 

"There are still people in there?"

"We have on occasion received sporadic, barely intelligible signals ... " Such was humanity's desperation that these signals were enough to motivate hundreds of volunteers to join the push to take back the Hong Kong Shatterdome.

"I guess it's not like we have a lot of other options going for us," Raleigh mused as they jogged to their next destination.

The nearby hospital Kwai Chung Hospital which provided psychiatric services was largely deserted, the majority of its residents having run away during the early days of the Contagion. There were more textbooks to be found and also a supply of bandages, bedding and other useful supplies. 

Tragically, they came upon the remains of the unfortunate souls who had been behind thick glass and doors in the High Dependency Unit. Although safe from the Contagion, when the staff had fled, they had been left there to die of starvation.

There were tears in Mako's eyes as they stared at the bloody claw marks on the door, the skeletons on the ground and tired not to imagine their fear and panic as the patients had starved to death while the world came to an end outside. Even though they had died a very long time ago, the sorrow was new and Raleigh found himself murmuring the fragment of a half-remembered prayer as he stared at the human remains.

Both were very subdued as they left the hospital. Nonetheless, darkness was approaching quickly and they knew that they would have to find somewhere safe to pass the night. Even Rangers did not travel at night unless it was absolutely necessary.

They studied the buildings around them which were sagging and almost seemed to issue a silent groan, their interiors having expanded and contracted over the years, the joints between walls and rooflines separating, permitting the rain to enter, bolts to rust as the elements conspired to reabsorb humanity's architecture into the natural landscape.

Downtown Hong Kong hadn’t burned the way some of the world's abandoned cities had and the city's humidity had protected it from igniting like dry kindle. Instead, the city was covered in green – moss and lichen, long creeping vines, overhanging tree canopies and grass. The birds had begun flying through the broken glass windows to next in the high-rise structures that littered the sky like distorted skeletons.

It looked as though the earth was devouring the buildings and they selected a fire station with vines growing through the windows and slim saplings entwining themselves into the walls.

Before they could settle in for the evening, there was the necessary business of clearing the section of the fire station that they had designated as their space for the night.

Raleigh held up a hand as they glanced into a dusty old office and saw one Biter staggering around the room, his clouded white eyes looking around aimlessly. Mako dispatched him swiftly and they went up to the fourth floor of the station and began to clear it room by room until they had cleared the station – luring the Biters into one room to be killed.

Raleigh closed the door of the room that now resembled a slaughterhouse and they went up the stairs to the room that gave the best viewing point over the street. Mako worked to block the entrance to the fourth floor and Raleigh clambered out a window to set up an escape route if it became necessary for them to exit the building through the window.

"There's an emergency ladder from the balcony and we can make it to the roof. I've jammed the other doorway to the roof – there's no other access to the roof so we'll be safe there."

"Exit from the roof?" Mako questioned.

"There's a large overgrown tree that we can jump into from the roof and we can use that to get to the roof of the power shed next to the station – it's high enough off the ground that the Biters can't reach us."

"OK," she nodded and they swapped places as he went to inspect the barricade she had built while she tested the escape route, clambering out the window lightly and climbing up onto the roof. She surveyed the tree that he had mentioned and she swung herself into the tree and then onto the flat roof of the shed. More than 10 feet off the ground, it took them to safety but they would be trapped unless they could distract the Biters. 

The street was largely empty; a few lone Dead staggering at the end of the road and in and out of empty buildings but there was no horde. She clambered back into the tree, made her way back to the roof and back into the fourth floor of the fire station where Raleigh was further bracing the barricade at the stairs, using sturdy ladders to prop up the barricade.

"All right?" he questioned and she nodded.

"As long we aren't surrounded at the shed."

"Cross that bridge when we come to it I guess," he said with a shrug. There was only so much that they could do in the way of anticipating escape routes.

According to the map there was a retirement home next door which would probably be teeming with the Dead but also have bandages and medical supplies. They agreed to start scouting there at first light. For the time being though, they would rest.

Before settling down for the night they conducted another sweep, double checking all closets, cupboards and corners for hidden Biters. Complacency got people killed. 

When finished, they returned to the largest room and sat by the window. The solar powered walkie talkie had been tied to the top of Raleigh's backpack so that it could be charged as they walked and he untied it now to contact headquarters.

"Raleigh and Mako checking in."

"Good to hear from you," Tendo's voice said cheerfully. "Lucky last."

Raleigh gave their location and confirmed with Tendo that all other Ranger teams were safe.

"Talk again mañana," Tendo told them and then the room was silent.

They ate quietly. They had fresh food for the mission's first two days but the remaining five days would be jerky and other preserved rations supplemented with anything edible that they could scavenge along the way.

Raleigh looked at Mako who was leaning against the wall beside him chewing on her bread roll. He took a swallow of his water and then asked,"So why did you want to be a Ranger so badly? It's not the safest of occupations these days."

"I grew up seeing the good the Marshall and the other Rangers did despite everything. I knew that I wanted to do something to fight back … I like the way the Rangers contribute ..."

"Good enough for me," Raleigh said with a shrug. "For Yance and me, it just seemed like a good idea at the time," he said with a reminiscent smile.

"Mr Becket," Mako asked very formally.

"Yes?" 

"When will you decide if I am an acceptable partner?" Her voice as steady but her dark eyes were slightly anxious.

Raleigh bit back a smile. "I've decided that we can be partners subject to one condition." He paused. "You need to stop calling me Mr Becket."

She exhaled and a small smile crept over her face.

"This is an acceptable condition – Raleigh."

"And it's ok if I call you Mako?"

"Yes," she nodded gravely. She was tired and sweaty from their hard day's work, still slightly flushed from the heat but he thought she looked wonderful. Her full mouth was pink and unenhanced. Other women stained their lips and cheeks red with colouring from beetroot juice – even with extinction on the horizon, many still cared about their appearance. Not Mako though, her face was entirely unembellished. Nonetheless, Raleigh thought that her face was lovely.

Mako gave him a sidelong glance, staring at the dirty, dark blond of his closely cropped hair, the deep blue of his eyes and marvelled that she could feel so connected and safe with a man who until recently had been a stranger to her. With the exception of Herc Hansen, she had never really had 'friends'. 

They did a very quick injury check and found nothing serious – just a few bruises and minor scratches. Scratches that broke the skin were considered to be slightly more serious and these were quickly treated with alcohol. They pulled off their shoes and socks to check for blisters but both of them had sturdy calloused feet although Mako pulled a face when Raleigh pretended to be gagging at the smell of her feet.

"I'll take first watch," Raleigh offered and Mako nodded as they unrolled their sleeping bags and placed them by the window after having completed their nightly ablutions.

She lay down on the ground. She wondered where Herc was and hoped that he and Chuck had found a safe place to rest for the night. The Australians, the Wei Triplets and the Kaidonovskys had been deployed to the most dangerous part of Mong Kok. 

Prior to the Contagion, with its extremely high population density of 130,000 person per square kilometre, Mongkok had been the busiest district in the world. These days, it was one of the areas of Hong Kong that was still crawling with Biters – all the more deadly because of the narrowness of the streets and the height of the buildings. Nonetheless, it had more military surplus stores and shops than any other part of Hong Kong. 

It was unsettling to think of Herc being forced to find somewhere in that incredibly dangerous part of town to sleep – a world away from the relative safety of rural Australia. By comparison, the fire station she was in was a bastion of security and she drifted off to sleep.

*

When Mako awoke later that night, she saw that Raleigh was sitting at the window still staring at, his head silhouetted by the moonlight.

When he saw her watching him, he smiled slightly.

"Everything all right?" she asked him.

He nodded. "A few Biters walking up and down the road but they're slow and aimless. They don't know we're here."

"You should get some sleep," she told him, sliding out of her sleeping bag and crossing to the window.

"I don't mind keeping watch for a bit longer."

"It's my turn," she told him simply, sitting at the window and staring out. "Did you know that this was a historic place? On 25 December 1953, a large fire destroyed the Shek Kip Mei shantytown of immigrants from Mainland China that had fled to Hong Kong, leaving 53,000 people homeless."

"I guess they rebuilt."

"But were destroyed again," she said sadly. "Sleep," she told him. "I'll wake you in the morning."

He nodded. In the distance, they heard a scream that was unmistakeably human. Both stiffened. The person screamed again, a sound filled with fear and pain and then the silence returned.

"Whoever it was, it's too late for us to even try to help them," Raleigh told her soberly and Mako nodded, her face shadowed and dark. Raleigh settled down to sleep, trying not to think of the poor wretch who had met his or her end that night.

In the morning, the unblocked the stairwell and made their cautious way downstairs. Half a dozen Biters had wandered in and congregated on the ground floor during the night but it was a simple enough matter to dispatch them. The difficult thing had been to do it quietly without summoning any others in the area. They had debated simply running away but given that the Dead would have followed them to the nursing home next door and attracted unwanted attention, they had decided that it was necessary to dispose of the Biters in the station before moving on.

Raleigh stared at the Biter in the decomposing suit whose face was a caricature of a smile. He tried not to think about who the man had been before he had become this basic, savage creature.

Cautiously and silently they made their way through the entrance of the retirement home. As anticipated, the home was positively swarming with the Dead – most of whom appeared to be trapped in their rooms although there were still enough wandering through the halls to slow them down slightly. Despite the numbers, these ones were of the slow, shambling variety – easily duped, easily herded and the risk was relatively low so long as they did not make any noise that would attract any Dead that happened to be wandering out in the streets.

They lured and herded as many as they could into the laundry which had heavy sturdy doors and locked them inside. The medical supplies in the retirement home were largely intact and there was a huge supply of blankets, sheets and clothing. 

While Mako was inventorying the items, Raleigh marked the doors of the laundry very clearly. _"Do Not Open. Biters Locked Inside."_

Mako and Raleigh packed a small number of bandages, gloves and socks in their backpacks, leaving the rest to be salvaged. They would provide a sitrep to headquarters during their daily report later in the evening so that Regulars could be deployed.

"Ready?" Raleigh asked. Mako nodded and the two of them set out once more, carefully walking along the warped, cracked roads that were littered with broken glass, garbage, debris and overgrown thickly with weeds and shrubs.

Both wore steel capped boots which made running more difficult, but for missions such as these where they would be walking through thick grass, it was the safer option.

"Another hospital…" Raleigh muttered, staring at the list of targets scrawled on a piece of paper.

They both knew why though. Any assault on the Shatterdome was likely to result in a far higher number of casualties than usual. In a very small number of instances, amputation of a limb that had been bitten or scratched by the Dead might prevent the spread of the infection. In such cases, the victim might bleed out anyway and reanimate following Death so it was always vital to staunch the bleeding.

"Shek Kip Mei Health Centre is closest," Mako advised him. "We may be able to make it to the Kwong Wah Hospital and the Red Cross Transfusion Centre in the same day depending on what the road is like."

"And available shelter for the night. I don't want to be sleeping out in the open in a place like this," Raleigh said grimly.

He scrambled lightly over a crumbling brick wall and reached down a gauntleted hand to help Mako over. After a moment's hesitation, she accepted his assistance and as he pulled, she clambered up the wall.

"I can jump down myself," she told him as he leapt down light and reached up a hand to help her down.

"I know you can," he told her with a smile and she vaulted down lightly, Raleigh steadying her as she landed on the ground. 

*

Mako's eyes snapped open suddenly. Her breathing came out as a gasping sob and she bit back a scream. She relaxed when she realised that it was just Raleigh's hand covering her mouth. "It's ok, Mako – it was just a nightmare," he whispered.

Jaws rending flesh from the living amidst screams. Blood everywhere. Just a nightmare. Also a vivid memory.

"Was I very loud?" she asked him anxiously and he shook his head, moving his hand away from her mouth although it remained at her cheek, brushing away her tears with his thumb.

"No – just thought it was better to be safe than sorry," he explained. 

She was still trembling violently and he pulled her against him tightly, his arm about her narrow shoulders. "Sleep. I'll keep you safe," he promised her.

" _Baka_ ," she muttered at his foolishness but closed her eyes and allowed herself to sleep a dreamless sleep, her face pressed against his shoulder. She could smell him. It had been days since they'd been able to bathe properly; only able to do very basic sponge baths when they found clean water. By rights they should both have smelled kind of bad but she found the masculine scent of him reassuring.

She trusted him – had since the day she'd laid eyes on him and the feeling had been mutual. Now on the last night of their mission, that bond was even stronger, enhanced by the days of working together, watching out for one another and risking their lives for one another.

She awoke a little before it was her turn to keep watch and they sat watching the street together, his arm still around her shoulders, his hand stroking her arm absently.

"How old were you when your parents died?" he asked her abruptly.

She stiffened. Clearly she had betrayed the subject matter of her nightmare.

"I was eleven," She told him. "My father had cancer. We were in Tokyo for him to get treatment … at the hospital people were screaming … people were attacking one another, eating people alive …" Her voice became very soft and he had to strain to hear her. "My parents were attacked by a group of other patients – they sacrificed themselves so that I could get away. I saw them being ripped apart in front of me my eyes … screaming for me to run. I let them die … I ran away." Her face was expressionless as her mind replayed the horrific images of that day. The sounds, the smells, the bright red blood everywhere she looked …

"Mako."

"Never alone," she told him. "The Ranger motto – you don't leave them behind."

"Mako – you were a child … you weren't a Ranger then."

Her lips pressed together tightly and she nodded. "I was not. But I'm a Ranger now," she told him and her gaze was very calm and steady.

"The motto isn't a suicide pact," he told her gently. "It means that if your partner gets bitten, you do what needs to be done … you don't leave your partner to turn. It doesn't mean you try to die as well."

"Then why are you so angry at your brother for protecting you?" she asked him bluntly and he flinched.

"Touché," he said ruefully. "All our lives – Yance was the one looking after me. Looking out for us. Right at the end, even when he was dying – his first thought was to protect me." His throat was tight. 

The moon was particularly bright, shining off his blond hair and making it gleam like a newly minted coin. His blue eyes were dark and shadowed.

"So … tell me about you and Herc," Raleigh invited her. "I take it Pentecost knows nothing about the secret romance."

Mako shook her head. "I went on my first mission with him … "

"And then you fell in love with him?"

Mako went very still. "He says that we can have no future together."

"What do you think?"

"I will not add to the Marshall's burdens when he already has so many," Mako said carefully.

As she leaned against Raleigh, she found herself feeling confused, wondering how it was possible to love one man and yet still feel so strongly about another. She had been pleased when she and Raleigh had worked so well together and been so compatible as a Ranger pair. She hadn't expected the physical chemistry. She had met attractive men before but with the exception of Herc, had never actually been attracted to them.

There was a flicker of something in Raleigh's blue eyes but he spoke lightly. "I'm going to get some shut-eye. You'll keep me safe Mori-San?"

"Yes," she promised and he removed his arm from around her shoulders and stretched out beside her on the ground. She watched as he fell asleep, knowing when he was asleep by the sound of his breathing changing and then she continued watching the road outside the building.

Over the last week, he had saved her life on more occasions than she could recall and she had saved his. They had worked together seamlessly to kill to evade, to scout, to forage. Their disagreements never threatened to become arguments and it felt as though they had known each other all their lives.

If not for Herc, Mako might have been tempted to initiate something. As it was, both seemed content to keep things on a purely platonic footing even though when his ungloved hand touched her skin, it felt like a jolt of electricity and she knew the way that he watched her when he thought she wasn't looking because she was watching him in the same manner.

She found herself wondering how he would taste … what would his body feel like against hers? Guilt made her try to suppress those thoughts but she failed miserably. With a sigh she rose to her feet, stretching her arms and legs to get the blood flowing again. Standing in the darkness, she watched the gaunt figures shuffling aimlessly along the road.

Something caused gooseflesh on her skin and she shivered even though the room was warm. No matter how many times she confronted the Dead, they were still terrifying. It might have been their lack of humanity or the shadow of the humanity that they had once possessed that unsettled the living - that and the fact that one bite or scratch would condemn a person to the same eternal damnation.

Glancing down at Raleigh sleeping quietly on the ground, she found herself feeling irrationally reassured and holding her machete in hand; she sat on the broad window sill and kept watch.

*

They were setting back to return to the camp when there was the sound of a shot and the blaze of a flare gun flew into the sky above them.

The walkie talkie sounded. "All teams – it's the Wei Triplets. They're in trouble," Tendo said tensely. "They're pinned down at the end of Nathan Road near the Avenue of Stars."

"We're on our way," they heard Sasha say.

"Us, too," Herc said briefly. "We should be there soon."

"And us," Raleigh said into the walkie talkie as he and Mako started jogging towards the end of Nathan Road.

When they arrived, they were horrified to find a horde numbering hundreds swarming before them in a swirling mass of decay and hunger. The heat and stench blew towards them in a strong wave that made them both stagger backwards and retch for a moment before they regained their composure.

"I need you to all to stay back," Pentecost ordered them. "I cannot afford to lose you. If you can lure the horde away from the Weis then do it, but otherwise you must stay back."

Raleigh and Mako cast each other frustrated glances. Both of them scrambled to higher ground in an attempt to get a better look at what was going on. They could see three small figures running frantically down the Avenue of the Stars towards the water front in an effort to evade the horde. Ordinarily, a healthy person could easily outrun a horde – the problem lay when one was surrounded on all sides, which was exactly what the problem was here.

A gun was fired and the attention of the horde was divided. Aleksis Kaidanovsky stood tall and proud as he fired. One tall Biter fell to the ground, his head a bloody ruin. It was not enough and although many of the Dead followed the Kaidanovskys who turned and began to run and lead them away from the Triplets, many continued their inexorable path towards the three Chinese Rangers who were surrounded by the Dead and had nowhere to run.


	6. Post-Modernism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "There is no time to grieve," Pentecost said slowly and with great effort...
> 
> There's non-monogamous smut in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long time between updates I know. I swear I haven't abandoned this fic - just need to find the time and head space to write it. No idea if anyone's still reading it but I hope you are enjoying it. I write for a lot of unpopular pairings and fandoms and I am entirely honest when I say that I write for myself - but that doesn't mean that I don't get a thrill if other people are also enjoying the fic as well.

The world was spinning and Mako felt as though her heart had been torn from her chest. The Wei Triplets were gone … The horde had completely surrounded them, tearing at them hungrily and as their fellow Rangers had watched on in horror, they had taken their own lives rather than become one of the walking dead.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Herc had sworn in a broken voice as similar epithets had escaped his son's lips. Horror, grief, anger were all mixed into one as they watched helplessly.

Then only the Kaidanovskys were left … standing before the oncoming horde with no means of escape.

"Leave!" they screamed at the others, resigned to their fate.

The sight of Sasha being torn to pieces by the horde made Mako stiffen, her face turning pale. For one endless moment, despite the danger, she found herself completely unable to move. Staring blindly ahead of her, all she could see was her mother's face in place of Sasha's screaming, contorted face. The world spun even more violently, the ground was moving and she swayed where she stood, a loud pulse throbbing behind her eyes as everything appeared to slow down … Her whole body felt heavy as if she was being pulled towards the ground. 

"For fuck's sake, get her out of here, Raleigh – she's gonna get us all killed!" Chuck bellowed across the clearing, his face furious.

"Mako, we have to go," Raleigh told her urgently. "You can't help her – she's lost …"

"No," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "I can't leave," she told Raleigh. "Not yet …"

"Mako …"

To his horror, she ran even closer to the horde. "Come back, Mako – you can't …" his voice trailed off as he saw her aim her pistol at Sasha.

"I'm sorry," Mako said softly, her dark eyes filled with grief.

"Thank you, little sister," Sasha whispered, her once striking face a ruin of torn flesh and blood.

Tears pouring down her face, Mako pulled the trigger. Sasha crumpled to the ground where she disappearing from sight, the Dead swarming around her body to devour her. Aleksis was long gone, Sasha having dispatched him with her own pistol shortly before she herself was bitten.

Raleigh seized Mako by the hand firmly and started running with her. "We need to get out of here, _now_ ," he told her. His tone was very grim and did not permit disagreement.

"We're fucking surrounded as well," Chuck called out. "Nowhere for us to go," he shouted as the Hansens were fighting off Biter after Biter with their machetes. No matter how many they struck down, more came, swarming in a menacing mass of almost overwhelming decay. They managed to scramble up onto a platform just out of reach as the sea of the Dead surrounded them, clawing determinedly at the stone platform and moaning their hunger.

"Hey assholes – this way," Raleigh called out loudly. He cut his arm very deliberately and allowed the blood to drip to the ground. Dozens of the Dead were immediately drawn to the scent, stopping and turning towards Mako and Raleigh. "Tasty?" he jibed, holding his arm out. Some but not all started staggering away from the Hansens towards Raleigh.

"As soon as enough follow us, get the hell out of here!" Raleigh shouted.

Chuck and Herc leapt down, Herc landing badly and giving a shout of pain as his leg gave way. "Shit, fuck, shit!" he muttered furiously beneath his breath, anger threaded with agony.

"For fuck's sake, old man," Chuck exclaimed in panic as he crouched down to pull his father's arm around his shoulders and lift him to his feet.

"Just leave me behind," Herc told his son.

"Not bloody likely," he said fiercely. "He's hurt his leg!" he called out to Mako and Raleigh.

"We're going to have to split up to divide the herd," Mako muttered and Raleigh was forced to agree.

"OK - meet you back at the camp," he told her. She nodded.

The two of them began making as much noise and clamour as possible, leading the herd into two separate directions to give Chuck the time to splint his father's leg and stagger back to camp.

*

Mako was weeping openly by the time she made it back to the camp. She had led the Biters following her far away from the camp, losing them at the forests that had grown at the harbour's edge before running back to the camp but memories flooded through her mind every single step of her run … Sasha's face … sparring with the triplets … Her face was so swollen and drenched in tears, it was pure instinct that stopped her from tripping and falling to the ground.

Raleigh was waiting for her at the fence, his eyes dark and shadowed. In different circumstances, he would have pulled her into his arms but they were both covered with the blood of the infected so he held back.

They didn't go to the showers immediately. Only once they had confirmed that the Hansens had made it back to the camp safely did they make their way to the camp showers, stripping off their filthy clothes and stepping naked under the cool spray. 

The decision to share the same shower had been wordless and Raleigh's arms went around her tightly as she pressed her face against his chest and wept. He pressed a kiss to her hair. "Mako - I’m so sorry," he murmured, aware that she had lost many dear friends in the one day.

Rinsing off the blood and the filth, they soaped themselves until they felt clean again and then reached for towels to dry themselves before pulling on fresh clothing. Mako bandaged up his cut arm silently as he studied her face. Then they made their way back to the briefing area where people were gathered, some weeping, some stony-faced. Stacker Pentecost looked as though he had aged ten years in a day.

The mission overall had been 'successful' but at what cost. Two Ranger teams were gone, five precious lives were lost and Herc Hansen was out of action indefinitely as a result of his fractured leg. He stood by the edge of the circle, his leg splinted, his unshaven face grim and taut as he stared straight ahead, deliberately not looking at Mako's reddened face and swollen eyes.

"There is no time to grieve," Pentecost said slowly and with great effort as he and Tendo outlined all of the invaluable stores and supplies the Rangers had discovered during the course of the last week and which were to be retrieved by the Regulars. "I need you to rest," he told the Rangers, grief heavy in his eyes. 

"You can't seriously expect us to still try for the Shatterdome next week?" Chuck demanded incredulously, his words echoing the question on everyone's mind.

"Dismissed," Pentecost replied, walking away from the group.

*

"You need to eat," Raleigh said gently and Mako turned away and continued to stare into the small fire that he had lit near their shipping container.

"He's right," Herc's voice spoke from behind them and Raleigh turned to see the tall Australian standing behind them, grim-faced with his eyes full of sorrow. "Starving yourself doesn't help anyone."

Mako rose to her feet. Raleigh looked away as Mako moved silently into the comfort of Herc's arms but not before he saw the older man's mouth coming down over Mako's hungrily. He heard Mako's soft whimper of desire and glanced back just as the two went into the shipping container together.

He sat outside, keeping watch to make sure that no one entered and keeping the fire alive, his blue eyes shadowed and unreadable. 

He was close enough to hear the sound of Mako weeping … weeping that stopped, dissolving into sounds of breathless pleasure, her voice urgent and uninhibited. The two lovers did their best to stifle the sound but Raleigh was close enough to hear it. All of it.

With a sigh, he stared into the flickering flames of the fire, trying without much success to ignore the tightness of his body as he envisaged everything that was going on in the shadows behind him.

*

"Don’t cry anymore, love," Herc whispered as he trailed kisses over the smoothness of Mako's throat. She closed her eyes, a moan escaping her parted lips.

"Then make me forget," Mako murmured, whimpering with pleasure as Herc's cool fingers slid knowingly between her between her thighs, stroking and arousing. When he finally sank into the tight heat of her body, she was more than ready for him, pulling him closer and sinking her teeth lightly into his bare shoulder. She licked the saltiness of his skin, breathed deeply of his scent and for a moment she felt safe.

When the two of them eventually emerged from the freight container, both were calm although their faces were slightly flushed. Raleigh looked away from the knowing expression in the older man's gaze. He didn't want the Australian's pity. 

"Look after her for me," Herc said gently and Raleigh nodded silently. He paused. "She feels the same way about you," he said unexpectedly and then left, leaving Raleigh staring after him with astonishment.

Raleigh kicked out the fire and the two of them went into the container. His nostrils twitched. It smelled of sex and so did Mako.

"How are you holding up?" he asked and she shrugged, avoiding his gaze.

"I'm fine."

He reached out and gripped her chin and stared into her dark eyes that were reddened and watery.

"You don't have to pretend with me," he told her softly and she reached up to touch his cheek with her hand. Carefully, slowly he cupped her face in his and lowered his head so that his mouth brushed against hers lightly. Mako did not pull away and her soft mouth clung to his, lips parting willingly as his tongue slid against hers intimately.

He could smell Herc on her and was surprised to find that he didn't care, not when she was pulling her against him with her small hands and kissing him back with a hunger that rivalled his own. 

He slipped his hand between her legs. She was damp and hot and writhing against his fingers. Their breathing quickened and he was pulling her clothes off of her, lowering her to her sleeping bag so that he could taste her all over. His impatience to explore was matched by hers and he gave a low laugh as she pulled off his clothes.

"Relax, we have time," he muttered thickly even as he groaned his pleasure when her warm lips closed around him. She was very good at it and it was only with great self-control and self-denial was he able to pull himself from her before he came.

"No, our first time isn't going to end with you finishing me off with your mouth," he muttered, lowering her to the sleeping bag, his legs tangling with hers.

"You didn't like it?" she asked him archly, her pupils, dilated and huge as she licked her lips.

"You know the answer to that," he muttered.

"Now," she told him. He slid his hands beneath her and lifted her up as her slim legs wrapped around his waist. He sank into her, the feel of his hardness sliding into her welcoming heat made them both cry out.

He sank into her again, enjoying the clasp of her tight body. A long, breathy moan left her and his legs shook. He withdrew and thrust back into her again and again. They didn’t care who could hear them … the hard and fast way his body slammed into hers, the sound of their flesh slapping. She was slick … from arousal and possibly because just half an hour ago she'd been fucking Herc Hansen. The thought should have bothered Raleigh but for some reason it didn't.

He wanted to be gentle, to make it last longer but found himself completely incapable of taking it slow … Instead, he fucked her as though possessed and Mako didn't seem to have any issues with it. She gasped out his name, her head lolling back on the sleeping bag.

He could tell that she was very close to climax. She was whimpering and he couldn’t hold it back much longer. He reached down to touch her already sensitive flesh, she gave a strangled moan she tightened around him even further. He was gone. His self-control had vanished and he came. His fingers clutched at her hard as he breathed her name and thrust into her again, hard.

It took a while for their breathing to return to normal and he kissed her lingeringly, his mouth gentle and loving. She put her arms around him and held him close. 

"That was … unexpected…" he muttered beneath his breath.

"Why?" she asked him.

"Because I assumed that you and Herc were exclusive."

"We were," she told him seriously. "But he knows that you and I …" Her voice trailed off and she brushed a kiss across his cheek, pulling him back down to her.

"You're all right with being shared?" he questioned and she shrugged.

"Do you mind?" she asked him and he thought about it for a moment and shook his head.

"I haven't done it before, but I don't have a problem with it … You intending to invite him in here tonight?" he teased her and Mako shook her head smiling.

"Maybe not tonight … we need to get to know each other better," she told him.

"Can't argue with that," he remarked, his lips trailing kisses down her throat and then lingering at her rosy nipple, suckling lightly, his teeth tugging gently, the stabs of pleasures making her arch her slender back.

"Raleigh …" she whispered his name and his mouth returned to hers and the kiss lingered as his fingers tangled in his hair.

*

"You can't be serious?" Chuck demanded incredulously. "You're going to be my partner? This is crazy – surely we can delay the mission …" He stared at his father desperately as if the older man would support him.

Herc remained silent, arms crossed in front of him.

"We don't have the luxury of time, Ranger," Pentecost told him grimly. "The signal from the Shatterdome – it's the only chance at hope we've had in a long time. If we wait, we may lose even that hope."

"If we go in now, we may all fucking die and then where are we?" Chuck bit out.

"You volunteered for this mission – you can stand down any time," Pentecost replied. 

"Not gonna happen, mate, not gonna happen."

Pentecost glanced over at his friend. "Perhaps there's more to him than I thought, Herc." 

Herc shrugged. "He had to have inherited some good qualities."

"I'm right here," Chuck exclaimed, shaking his head. This mission was going to be the death of all of them - and probably humanity, too.


	7. Planning for the Inevitable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day finally arrives when they try to retake the Hong Kong Shatterdome.... 
> 
> So sorry it's been so long between updates. I swear this fic has not been abandoned. Also, I know it's the worst sin of all but I haven't had time to proof-read this chapter yet. I promise I'll be doing that soon! For anyone in this tiny pairing who is still reading this fic, I hope you are still liking it.

Herc knew without asking where he'd find Mako that morning. Sure enough, she was at the Kaidanovskys' shipping container packing up their belongings. It was reality. The property laws of the Resistance were simple - belongings of the dead were sorted through and returned to the general supplies pool to be distributed amongst the living. No one had the time or inclination to draft wills anymore and having the law deem everyone intestate had stopped the living fighting over the belongings of the dead.

He stood for a moment watching as she folded clothing, placing it carefully onto a neat pile. "Shoes are over there," she instructed Lucia, one of the young women who worked in stores. "Some unused medication in the corner. Please ask Stefan to retrieve their weapons."

She glanced over at him. "How long have you been standing there, Hansen-San?' she asked him politely. Her eyes looked huge with dark smudges of exhaustion and sorrow beneath him. 

"Long enough," he remarked.

"How's your leg?" she asked, staring down at his splinted leg in concern. 

"Xiao Liu helped set it – she says it will heal straight. Shouldn't have a limp," he told her with a shrug. Relief flooded her eyes. 

He walked with her to the container that had housed the Wei Brothers. Her hands trembled as she picked up the faded, fragile photographs and letters they had left behind. Personal effects like these went into the Archive, a way for humanity to hang onto memories and retain some sort of history of what life had once been like. No one asked who they expected to access the Archive if humanity was wiped out.

Mako carefully smoothed out the paper and photographs, pressed them flat and placed them between the pages of a book that would be taken to the Archive at their base and eventually sent back to the headquarters in Australia or if they were successful in retaking the Hong Kong Shatterdome, to the Shatterdome's Archive. Her fingers trembled. These brown bits of paper were all that remained of the fierce Kaidanovskys…

"Don't torture yourself, love," he told her in a low voice. "Please," he pleaded with her, even as pain coloured his own voice. "There was nothing any of us could have done."

"I know … but I'm sad and I miss them," Mako told him simply. It wasn't possible for him to reach out and fold her into his arms. All he could do was stand there and stare at her with longing in his eyes. "You're not going to ask me about Raleigh?" she asked him suddenly.

"I think I already know," he told her, a flicker of amusement in his eyes as he stared at the smudge on her throat that he hadn't given her.

She slanted him a reproving look. "I didn't sleep with him during the mission," she told him.

"That was wise of you," he said approvingly.

"But we were together last night," she told him.

"I know."

"I know you know – but I'm telling you anyway," she told him. "You're sure you don't mind."

He shook his head. "You know I don't. I find it reassuring to know that if I kark it, Becket will be there to look after you."

"I don't need anyone to look after me," she told him stubbornly. "I can take care of myself."

"Bull shit," he told her flatly. "Look around you Mako – we all need someone to look after us."

"Am I interrupting something?" Raleigh's voice asked and they both turned to look at him.

"Good morning," Mako greeted him and he walked up to them, studying her face closely, taking in her swollen eyes and shadowed eyes before glancing at Herc Hansen. The older man's expression was calm and friendly.

"Morning," he greeted them both. He studied the contents of the shipping container, missing nothing. His blue eyes darkened in sympathy. Although he had known the Weis and the Kaidanovskys for only a short period of time, he had come to like and respect them. He knew more than any of the others what a huge loss their deaths were.

"Hansen-San was saying that if he dies, you will look after me," Mako announced bluntly. Raleigh's eyes widened.

"Very morbid discussion first thing in the morning. Let's hope it doesn’t come to that," he replied.

"But you will look after her," Herc spoke grimly. It was not a question. Raleigh nodded, his eyes steady and clear.

"There's no doubt about that, sir," he promised.

"We will all look after one other," Mako said firmly and the two men smiled despite themselves at her emphatic tone.

"We have a briefing at 0900 hours," Herc reminded them before limping away from them, leaving them along in the shipping container that had belonged to the Wei Brothers.

"Shouldn't we be out there collecting supplies as well?" Raleigh asked her and Mako shook her head. "The Marshall wants us to rest. The Regulars are collecting – we are to recuperate given that we are leading the Shatterdome mission."

"He still wants to do it," Raleigh remarked, faint disbelief in his voice. "Seriously?"

"For the chance of a cure – yes," Mako told him fiercely. "For years, we have had no hope … just death and certain extinction. If there's even a small chance – then we will take it."

They walked out of the container into the open area of the camp. People walked around them, eying the two young Rangers with respect and deference. 

They walked to the water's edge and stared across the water at the Shatterdome sitting across Victoria Bay, overhanging the water. Huge and magnificent, it was disconcerting to think that it was swarming with the Dead.

Even Victoria Bay itself was transformed. Situated between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, Victoria Bay was the largest harbour in China and the third largest in the world. Before the Contagion, it had been home to most of the ports of Hong Kong, making the city one of the world's busiest ports. It had bustled day and night with all manner of watercraft – from the historic Star Ferries to cruise liners, cargo ships, and wooden fishing vessels.

Now, there were smaller boats on it manned by Resistance members, careful to avoid the numerous ghost ships that sailed aimlessly on the water, ships that were manned by the dead and were little more than floating coffins. It was always unsettlingly eerie to see the dead standing on deck, arms reaching out, clamouring for food they could not reach.

"Your father can dress it up all he wants, it's probably a one way ticket, Mako," Raleigh remarked. Before she could reply, he reached out and took her hand in his. "But I'm in," he told her and her eyes widened, her fingers twitching in his hand and he smiled.

*

"As soon as the Regulars have gathered the supplies we need, we are going in. Chuck and I will be the lead team trying to lead as many of the Infected away from the Shatterdome as possible. We will detonate the explosive device once we are a safe distance away from the Shatterdome. Mako and Raleigh will enter the Shatterdome, opening the doors to let the others in, trying to seize control of Shatterdome operations again," Stacker announced grimly.

With the loss of the Wei brothers and the Kaidanovskys, it was necessary to alter the original plan. The rooms and corridors of the Shatterdome would need to be cleared much more gradually and there would be more reliance on the Regulars who were diligent and brave – but far less trained and not as familiar with the sometimes intricate layout of the Shatterdome.

Leading up to the mission, the Resistance was busy preparing their weapons and body armour. Teams of medics with medical supplies were on hand, reach to amputate bitten limbs – or euthanise the doomed if need be. Everyone had a part to play and no one had any expectation of returning to the base at the shipyard. If they did not succeed in retaking the Shatterdome, chances were they would all die in the attempt.

Everyone was studying the maps and layouts of the Shatterdome, knowing that their lives depended on their familiarity with the labyrinth of corridors and rooms.

*

The three of them snatched moments where they could … 

"Mako – seriously, in the middle of the day?" Herc demanded in disbelief even as arousal thickened his voice and darkened his eyes.

"Raleigh's outside standing watch," she whispered as she drew him inside the freight container. Despite his better judgment, within seconds, he had her pinned against the wall of the container, moaning as his thrust into her with long, slow, steady penetration that made her insides twist and her muscles spasm.

Mako gasped loudly.

Deeper and deeper and still deeper. She gloried in the feel of his thick, hardness sliding deeper into her tight, welcoming body. He grunted, beginning to thrust, pulling himself in and out of her, using longer and longer strokes. Soon his hips were slamming against her buttocks with bruising force, her body jerking and shaking as he slammed her against the wall. Her cheek was pressed to the hard metal of the freight container, her eyes were glassy and her mouth was spilling incoherent sounds as his hips slammed against her body

She cried out as she felt his clever fingers slide against her swollen, sensitive flesh, rubbing roughly almost painfully towards her inevitable climax.

When she came, she muffled the sound of her scream against her hand, closing her eyes as her body was jerking violently as his hips hammered against hers. Her eyes were closed tightly as the orgasm howled through her like a storm.

Herc's hips continued to slap against her for long moments and then he let out an enormous shudder of his own as he buried himself to the hilt in her and came violently.

He breathed deeply of her scent, turning her in his arms so that they could kiss hungrily, tongues tasting and lingering. He could never get enough of her … he craved her like a drug even though he had always thought of himself of a man of great self-control, not controlled by his physical appetites.

"Stacker is definitely going to find out if we keep doing this," he told her in a low voice as he cleaned himself, rezipped his pants and tidied Mako's clothing.

"What if we never see each other again?" she asked him fiercely. "Can you blame me for wanting to take every moment I can?" she demanded.

He rested his forehead against hers, kissed her and then walked outside the container, blinking slightly at the sunlight. Raleigh was standing not far from the doorway, face grim and breathing a little ragged – clearly more than a little turned on.

"Could the two of you have been any noisier in there?" he asked in a taut voice and Herc pulled a face.

"You're one to talk," he retorted.

"You know if Pentecost finds out, we're all dead meat," Raleigh told him grimly.

"So we don't let him find out," Herc replied.

Later that night, it was Raleigh's turn. Mako felt hands encircle her waist and pull her back against a firm body. She gave a smile in the darkness as he began to nibble her neck gently. It sent shivers up her back as his tongue lightly traced along her neck. She began to move her hips gently from side to side against his cock as his hands curled around from the back to cradle her breasts gently. She felt herself grow damp.

"It all happens tomorrow," she whispered in a soft voice and his hand came up and placed a fingertip on her mouth.

"Let's not talk about the mission … concentrate on us. On this," he told her hoarsely.

She quickly removed her clothing and she felt his hands cup her breasts as his fingertips lightly raced across her nipples. He slowly pushed her over to the sleeping bag. Her breasts spilled free. She felt the familiar touch of a hand on the skin of her back. She wasn’t disappointed when his hands returned to play with them and gently cradle them as his fingers played back and forth over the tips until they swelled in pleasure. 

He licked her skin tantalisingly and she quivered as his tongue licked the soft skin of her inner thigh. “Yes…" Mako gave a low moan of approval.

Raleigh was very, _very_ good with his mouth … both he and Herc were … His tongue moved higher up, close to her heat. He slid under her body, between her legs so his hands could grip her hips as he drew her down onto his waiting mouth. He licked her, his tongue thrusting forcefully … his teeth nipping lightly. His lips found her clit and sucked it and then allowed his tongue to flick back and forth over the sensitive swollen flesh. The pressure was intense and she bit down on her hand to keep from crying out.

Her hips were thrusting against him furiously, her clit trapped in his mouth, the head rubbed by his rough tongue. Her body shook and trembled, the throbbing almost unbearable … 

At that point, she realised that while she was naked, Raleigh was still fully dressed. "Take off your clothes, Ranger," she ordered and he obliged with a wolfish grin, perspiration beading his upper lip. His mouth was reddened and damp.

Mako wet her lips as her head lowered between his legs. Her tongue ran over him, licking and sucking until her warm, soft lips began to encircle him. Her head rocked back and forth gently as she slid more and more of him into her mouth. She looked up at him deliberately… challengingly. Their eyes met, her lips drawn tightly around him as she sucked him. She sucked him for long moments as his hips rose up so he could thrust more of himself into her mouth.

He then lay on the ground on the sleeping bag and she went to straddle him, lowering herself onto him very, very slowly. "That feels … so good," she breathed as her tight body opened up to take his hugeness inside of her. In seconds, he was thrusting deep inside of her willing body.  
Her hips rocked back and forth as they fucked hard and fast. His strong hands reached around her to pull her against him until her nipples pushed into his chest. His hands slid down to cup her rear, drawing her on and off his hardness.

Mako muffled her shout as orgasm caused her body to lock with pleasure, aware that Raleigh had held back momentarily but was now also coming … When they were both spent, she slumped onto his body bonelessly.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he rasped, his breathing ragged and his voice hoarse. It occurred to him that if he was going to die, he couldn't think of a more pleasurable way to go …

*

The day of the mission arrived and there was a silence in the camp as everyone made their final preparations. Wordless glances, silent farewells as people behaved as if it would be their last day on earth – which for most of them, it probably would.

Raleigh and Mako were already waiting, running through their pre-deployment checklist and Pentecost was standing to the side, waiting. Time was short, but he had to be patient because Herc Hansen was sending his son off – possibly to die.

Pentecost had sent a lot of people off to die during the Contagion, but had had no children. The closest he knew to the experience of fatherhood was his relationship with Mako and he’d found it virtually impossible to permit her to deploy. Herc and Chuck had assumed they would be together whatever happened, but even a tough old bastard like Herc Hansen couldn’t be out in the field with his injury.

He stood a little way off from Pentecost, Max sitting at his feet as he regarded his son for what was possibly the last time.

"Chuck …"

“It's ok, dad. I know," Chuck told him harshly, his eyes overly bright with unshed tears.

He wrapped his father in a crushing farewell hug, then took a step back. Pointing down at Max, Chuck said, “Take care of him for me.”

Pentecost stepped forward. Over Chuck’s shoulder, Pentecost met Herc’s gaze. “Stacker,” Herc said. “That’s my son you’ve got there. My son.” 

Herc gave him a nod. Pentecost nodded back and the two friends bid one another farewell.

Raleigh glanced over at Mako.

 _Ready?_ he asked her with an incline of his head. She nodded back wordlessly.

They made their way into the dark Shatterdome cautiously, their footsteps echoing in the dark emptiness. 

The dome itself was approximately five hundred feet at its peak. A huge track radiated out towards the ocean doors. Outside the ocean doors, was a staging pad where back in the day, helicopters had been waiting to deploy. These days it was empty, the helicopters long-abandoned and the staging pad crawling with the Dead. They ignored the Biters, leaving the Regulars to deal with them.

A mezzanine stuck out over the floor containing Hong Kong LOCCENT, the Shatterdome’s nerve centre, wall-to-wall monitors, holodisplays, and workstations. Everything that happened in the Shatterdome was represented on a screen in the LOCCENT. Behind it was the mess hall, living quarters, lab facilities... all the stuff the resistance needed to keep itself fed, fit, trained, and ready to save the world. All abandoned … 

They walked through the main central space beneath the Shatterdome proper. Raleigh stood guard as Mako overrode the controls of the security door to open the door. The construction was all steel, designed for function, and the entire bay was littered with abandoned repair benches, tool cabinets, totes and bins full of discarded equipment.

They walked through the empty mess hall. The mess hall was the product of the same mould as the mess halls in every other military and pseudo-military facility all over the world. Serving area along one wall with fallen trash cans and a counter at the far end. Raleigh remembered the Anchorage Mess hall - the kitchen crew energetically washing dishes while the Rangers chowed down hungrily.

The main floor area was taken up with long tables and benches set parallel to each other, many had been overturned. There were bodies everywhere – all had a bullet to the head. Most were in pieces. The stench of decay was almost overpowering.

The LOCCENT was a massacre ground and the two Rangers stared at the sombre scene before them. Grimly, matter-of-factly they cleared the bodies aside, making sure each one was well and truly dead before piling them in a corner of the room. Mako went to the control panel and studied it, making a sound of frustration.

"Power grid is down … there's a back-up generator but I can't activate it from here … there seems to be a malfunction. We're going to have to activate it manually at the source."

"Great," Raleigh muttered as he recalled where the generator was – in the heart of the Shatterdome, beneath the solar panels adjoining the science labs. 

"Copy that," Tendo replied over the walkie talkie when Raleigh let command know what their next steps were. 

Herc Hansen, relegated to command on the outside called out the kind of update Pentecost had always insisted on. Over-communicate, Pentecost always said.

"We have a lot of dead and wounded out here, Raleigh. We've put down the ones who already turned but we've contained the ones who have just been bitten or scratched for now. Stacker and Chuck are at the outer perimeter of the Shatterdome and have a horde of Biters in pursuit – although you still have a fair whack coming after you – please be careful..."

"Copy that. We'll keep you posted," Raleigh told him grimly and he and Mako left the relative safety of the LOCCENT to walk further down the halls.

"Shit! Fuck! _Fuck!_ " they heard Chuck Hansen shouting loudly over the comms before going silent.

*

"Sensei? Sensei?" Mako demanded urgently as the two of them continued walking cautiously through the dark corridors of the Shatterdome in the direction of the science labs. They wore night vision goggles – flashlights would have attracted the Dead.

"Marshall. Chuck – what's your status?" he demanded urgently.

"We walked into a room with a bunch of dormant ones … there were too many of them… we got away but we've both been bitten," Pentecost said calmly, matter-of-factly, almost as if the bite on his calf was not a death sentence.

“Where are you?” Raleigh called out. 

"Sensei! No!" Mako's voice was agonised. "Tell us where you are – we will come to you …"

"No," Pentecost said. "There's no point, you know that, Mako. Raleigh,” Pentecost said. “You know what you have to do.”

"Copy that," Raleigh said soberly, staring into Mako's heart-broken eyes.

Chuck ignored the agonising pain throbbing in his left shoulder. He didn't need to look at it. It was black and necrotic. Spreading. Instead, he stared at the hordes still swarming into the Shatterdome. "We can't do anything," he muttered, despair and fury in his voice.

"We can lead more of them away from Raleigh and Mako," Pentecost replied calmly.

The panic and fear faded from Chuck's eyes and he nodded deliberately. "Yes."

The two Rangers began firing and making as much noise as they possibly could, leading as many of the horde away from the Shatterdome and towards the deep pits that had been dug outside the huge building.

“Marshal,” Mako said. “Sensei. No...”

“Mako. You can finish this ...Save humanity …”

There was gunfire as the two Rangers lured more of the horde away from the Shatterdome before being swept along by the massive number of Biters. People winced as they heard another scream of agony over the comms.

“It’s been a pleasure serving with you, sir," Chuck's voice could be heard before he, too vanished into silence.

From a distance, they watched the horde swarm towards where the edge of the pit where the two Rangers had been seen last. "Light it up," Herc said heavily as the Regulars looked to him for guidance once the hundreds of bodies spilled into the pit.

The flames lit up the horizon.

Tendo Choi looked at Herc Hansen, who knelt beside his dog, head down, mechanically scratching Max’s ears. All of us are mourning, Tendo thought. But only Herc is mourning the loss of a child.

*

Raleigh could feel Mako, stunned and withdrawn following Pentecost's death. She walked forward mechanically, without any expression on her face. It was easy to stop feeling when all you could control was the way you were going to die.

"Come on Mako – we have to move faster … " he told her urgently. The Marshall and Chuck had led the majority of the herd away, but not all of them and he could still hear the sounds echoing through the corridors. The Dead were coming – and there were a lot of them.

"We're almost there …" Mako said robotically. "The science lab should be …"

"Mako – run … we have to run!" Raleigh shouted as the horde grew closer. The two Rangers ran … stumbling in the darkness… trying not to trip over wires and fallen debris on the ground… trying not to stumble and fall into the piles of rotting corpses that littered the corridors of the Shatterdome.

"Raleigh – Mako … there are hundreds of them. You have got to haul ass," Tendo's voice was anxious.

"You want to tell us something we don't know?" Raleigh retorted.

Mako stumbled, falling heavily to the ground. "Just leave me!" she told him.

"Not a chance," he muttered, running back towards her and pulling her to her feet with what felt like will power alone. He could feel the clamour of bodies behind them as he pushed her forward and broke into a run behind her.

"We're trapped …" Mako whispered with a sob as the huge door blocked their way. There was no panel for her to override … no controls for her to configure … 

Raleigh pulled her in his arms and covered her body with his. They were going to die. There was no way around it … thousands of ravenous Dead were making their inexorable way towards them, the heavy door remained closed and there was absolutely nowhere for them to go.

Raleigh reached out and took Mako's hand in his. "I love you," he told her in a low voice as she held the barrel of her gun to his temple as he pressed his gun to hers. 

Her dark eyes widened and she stared at him in shock just as there was an unexpected crackle over the intercom.

"Well? Are you going to wait until the awkward one changes his mind?" a fussy male voice demanded impatiently. "Get in," it told them as the heavy door slid open. _"Get in!"_ it repeated urgently as the Dead came closer and the doors began to close again.

Raleigh's arm tightened around Mako's waist and with his remaining strength, he dove with her through the narrowing space, just as the door was closing behind them, both of them landing heavily on the corridor floor, the breath knocked out of their bodies …


End file.
